Salt Lake City day 2: Schulting's domination continues, a first indivdual medal for Dubois

The best short track skaters in the world were back on the ice of the Utah Olympic oval for the second day of World cup #2 today in Salt Lake City.

By Jackob Savard

Photos: Danny Kim

Today, the skaters competed in the 1000m (1) and 1500m final rounds and in the relays semi-finals.

Schulting's domination continues in the 1000 (1)

In the ladies' 1000m (1), Netherlands’ Suzanne Schulting was dominant from start to finish as she won all of her rounds to access the final and win it with a convincing performance. In three individual distances this season, Schulting has already collected three gold medals. Who’s gonna beat the young Dutch sensation? Russia’s Sofia Prosvirnova and China’s Fan Kexin completed the podium.

Reigning olympic champion on 1000m Samuel Girard was penalised in quarterfinal and wasn’t able to fight in the higher rounds of the distance today. The Liu brothers, Korean Kim Gun Woo and Park Ji Won, Chinese Ren Ziwei and Canadian Charle Cournoyer managed to reach the big final. The Liu brothers controlled the pack all race long and the race was won in the last straight line. Liu Shaolin finished in first just before Ren Ziwei and Park Ji Won. Liu Shaoang was penalised at the finish for arm block against the Korean skater.

Korean double in the ladies' 1500m

Kim Ji Yoo, Camille de Serres-Rainville, Choi Min Jeong, Yuki Kikuchi, Ekaterina Efremenkova, Li Xuan and Rianne de Vries had a rendez-vous in the ladies' 1500 A final. Reigning World Champion Choi Min Jeong made it looks easy and won her first individual gold medal of the season. Her young teammate Kim Ji Yoo took the second place and China’s Li Xuan finished in third.

On the men’s side, Canada’s Steven Dubois executed a spectacular pass to qualify for the A final against Sjinkie Knegt, Wang Pengyu, Pascal Dion, Lee June Seo, Hiroki Yokoyama and Keita Watanabe who offered a solid performance in the last semifinal. Dutch star Sjinkie Knegt also won his first distance of the season with his great performance on 1500m. Young Korean Lee June Seo took the second place while Canada’s Steven Dubois took his first individual World cup medal with the bronze.

Relays semifinals

China, France, Hungary and the Netherlands will battle in tomorrow’s mixed relay A final. Canada and Russia fell in the respective semifinal races and will have to race the B final tomorrow.

On the women's 3000m relay, team Russia and team Netherlands easily qualified for the big final with their race in the first semifinal. Japan and Korea will join them in the A final. The Korean team fell in their semi but China was penalised.

We’ll see Hungary, Russia, China and Italy in the men’s 5000m relay final tomorrow. Both Canada and France were penalised in the first heat while team Japan was penalised in the second semifinal.

For our Day 1 recap, click HERE

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