All eyes were on the Gangneung ice palace for the short track speed skating competition today as the women were fighting for a medal on 1500m while the men faced each other hoping to become olympic champion on 1000m.
By Carl Savard
Photos by Patrick Charbonneau and Martin Holtom
Ladies’ 1500m
From the get go, Gangneung’s darling child Shim Suk-hee, second this season on the distance, fell during the first race. An event setting the tone for the day. The semis that followed were as eventful. Canada’s Marianne St-Gelais was penalised after attempting an inside pass on Korea’s Kim Alang that lead to her own demise. Her teammate Valérie Maltais and Great Britain’s and reigning world champion Elise Christie, were also penalised in the semis. Christie left the ice on a stretcher after a hard fall. The main final was a battle between Korea’s Choi Min-jeong and Kim Alang, Canada’s Kim Boutin, China’s Lin Jinyu, Hungary’s Petra Jaszapati, Italy’s Arianna Fontana and Dutch’s great Jorien ter Mors. While Boutin and ter Mors set the pace at the beginning of the race, nobody was going to stop Choi Min-jeong today. The Korean superstar, disqualified on 500m, set the record straight and dominated the end of the race to get the gold. Young Chinese skater Lin Jinyu finished second while Kim Boutin gets the bronze. Her second in these Olympics games.
Men’s 1000m
This third day of competition in short track also saw Canada’s Samuel Girard being crowned olympic champion on 1000m. With some of the top dogs such as Korea’s Hwang Dae-heon and the Netherlands’ Sjinki Knegt out of the running after the qualifying rounds and his legendary teammate Charles Hamelin penalised in the semi-finals, Girard had to face John-Henry Krueger from the U.S.A., Liu Shaolin Sándor from Hungary and Korea’s Seo Yi-ra and Lim Hyo-jun in the main final. While Liu and the Koreans watched the race from behind, almost a trademark from those three skaters, Samuel Girard followed his game plan of skating at the front and slowly bring the pace up and it paid. Girard was pretty much untouchable at the end of the race while the backbenchers had to battle each other hoping to get closer to him. Girard was finally joined on the podium by Krueger who won silver and Seo Yi-ra getting the bronze.
More news
Cheyenne Goh, Singapore’s only athlete competing in Pyeongchang, finished in fifth place in her qualification round on 1500m. We are pretty sure she is all smile. The young skater living in western Canada would not have believed you if you had told her six months ago that she would be skating in Pyeongchang.
Winner of the gold medal in long track on 1000m just a few days ago, Jorien ter Mors was just two spots away from adding to Olympic history by winning a medal in both sports during the same Olympic games. A great performance from the Dutch skater.
Elise Christie who left on a stretcher after a hard fall, was brought to the hospital for x-rays. She seems to have only suffer bruises and should be at the starting line in the next event.
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