Will there be only 5 World cup events in short track this season?

The International Skating Union (ISU) shared a news release concerning the upcoming World cup season in short track speed skating and some things still need to be sorted out.

By Carl Savard

Photo by Oscar van den Bosch and Danny Kim

More information on the mixed gender relay event

It’s with a lot of excitement that we recently shared with you how the athletes feel about the new event added to the world of short track, the mixed gender relay. We now have some more details to share with you. We were the only one at the time of the anouncement to tell you this new event would be rewarded at the end of the season like all the other events and we now have the amounts the best teams will receive. The champions of the final ranking will receive 8000$ US while the next four will receive, in that order, 6000$, 4000$, 3000$ and 2000$.

Two more important details were also shared in this ISU communication. We told you the relay order was predetermined and that only a skater from the same gender could cover a fall, but there is more to know about. Here are precisions concerning those rules:

• The order of skating between the 2 Ladies in the Team can be changed from the first time they skate (2,5 laps each) to the second time they skate (2 laps each). The same will apply for the two Men in the Team.

For example, Korea could start their relay with Shim Suk-hee, she relays to Choi Min-jeong, Choi gives the relay to the first man, Lim Hyo-jun who relays to Lee June-seo. The next relay has to be from Lee to a female skater but it doesn’t have to be Shim even though she was first in the previous order, it can be Choi. It’s the same thing for the next female/male exchange.

The second important detail is linked to the fact that only a skater from the same gender should cover in case of a fall. There are exceptions. Here they are:

• If a fall happens during the last corner before a scheduled exchange to a Skater of the other gender (the corner right before 13, 8 or 4 laps to go), then a Skater of the other gender can cover the relay. In this case the Skater taking the relay can just keep on skating until the next scheduled exchange.

• If a fall happens during the first corner after a scheduled exchange to a Skater of the other gender (the corner right after 13, 8 or 4 laps to go), then a Skater of the other gender can cover the relay. In this case that Skater must make an exchange back to the other (proper) gender at the latest in the next straight.

The schedule isn't fully confirmed yet

Like we shared with you last week, the official calendar is out. We know that the season will start in  North America with the first event being held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada on the first weekend of November (Nov. 2-4). Calgary, is known to be the place to bring down records and is always an exciting weekend of competition. The following weekend, (Nov. 9-11) athletes will travel to the USA, home of the young upcoming star Maame Biney, for another exciting weekend on a really fast ice surface in Salt Lake City. The World cup circus will then travel to Almaty, Kazakhstan for the weekend of December 7 through 9. Now, let’s jump to the next official weekend. What is for the moment seen as World cup #5 will be held in Dresden, Germany on the first weekend of February (Feb. 1-3). Dresden saw Sjinkie Knegt and Arianna Fontana become European champions last season and the city also held a World cup event the previous season. But what about World cup #4 and #6? For the moment, it looks like Korea and Italy will organise those events but nothing is confirmed yet. The news release states this:

These two Competitions are still to be confirmed. The ISU is working on finding a solution for these competitions to be organized by an ISU Member in the respective regions (Asia, Europe). For the time being, the ISU cannot guarantee that a solution will be found. Any news on this will be announced at the ISU Website without delay.

My sources tell me that Italy is pretty much secured for World Cup #6 (Feb. 8-10) and that we should know pretty soon what happens with the one for which the ISU is in talk with Korea. We could actually end up with a World cup season of five events. We will keep you informed on further developments.

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