Saluting national records - Bulletin #4 - Beginning of 2019

There are fifty-one new national records in short track speed skating since the beginning of 2019.

By Caroline Truchon

Photos by Bert van Lobenstein and Danny Kim

European Championships - Dordrecht

The European Championships held January 11-13 in Dordrecht, Netherlands, were the theatre of eleven new national records. First, in the 1500m Ireland's Ryan McAnuff improved his previous record by 4 seconds, from 2:18.744 to 2:14.413. Bulgaria's Dimitar Georgiev improved his record by 2 seconds to bring it to 2:15.148.

In the 500m, Turkey's Firat Yardimci improved his national record on 500m twice to finaly set the time at 41.878. The old record was 42,216. The biggest improvement in the 500m came from Hanne Desmet, who went from 44,439 to 43,796!

In the 1000m, we only had one national record to report. Augustin Géré from Luxembourg brought the record from 1:26.22 to 1:25.369.

Finally, in the women's relay, Croatia improved their time by one and a half second to establish the mark at 4:34.464. On the men's side, Turkey improved their time by almost 6 seconds for a 6:51.690.

Junior World Championship - Montreal

Maame Biney was the queen of the 500m at World juniors, winning the gold medal, but also setting a new junior world record of 43.212 on the distance. The old record belonged to Petra Jaszapati of Hungary (43,550).

Malaysian Hazim Shahrum lowered the 1500m national mark by more than 3 seconds to set it at 2:26.268. He also improved the mark in the 500m by 1 second (44.843) as well as the 1000m by more than 2 seconds (1:31.278). His compatriot Sean Qi Jun Yeo held the 1000m record for two days, going from 1:33.632 to 1:31.752 before losing it to Shahrum on Sunday.

Finally, Singapore's Trevor Tran improved the national record in the 1500m by 1.5 seconds, going from 2:23.517 to 2:22.034.

World Cup # 4 - Dresden

It was in Dresden that we had the highest number of national records with a total of 23. In the 1500m, the biggest improvement came from Thailand's Triphop Thongngam. He broke his own record by almost 4 seconds to place it at 2:19.175.

It is in the 500m that we saw the most records being beaten. Here are a few: Turkey's Firat Yardimci lowered the national mark by almost a second to set a 40.936. Australian Andy Jung also improved a record dating back to 2014 by half a second for a 40.884. American Maame Biney followed on her momentum from World juniors by lowering the senior national record of her country (43.014). The French Aurélie Monvoisin now owns the national mark with a time of 42.757. Her compatriot Dmitry Migunov also inscribed his name in the French books of records establishing a 40.304.

In the 1000m, Croats Katarina Buric and Martin Kolenc lowered the national marks to place them at 1:34.889 and 1:27.488 respectively. The old records were 1:35.499 and 1:28.246. Thailand's Triphop Thongngam got back his old record that was beaten by his teammate in Montreal to establish a 1:29.563. The queen of the 1000m this season, Suzanne Schulting also lowered the national mark of the Netherlands by half a second to set it at 1:27.338. The previous record also belonged to her (1:27,792). Finally, the young Chinese Zhang Chutong beat the Chinese mark to stop the clock at 1:27.547.

In the relay, six national records were beaten. Germany (4:10.563), the Czech Republic (4:13.879) and France (4:08.344) lowered the national mark on the female side. Poland (6:48.340), Japan (6:36.136) and Italy (6:36.548) did the same on the men's side.

World Cup # 5 - Torino

In the 1500m, only Trevor Tran of Singapore lowered his national mark, but he did it by almost 2 seconds to stop the time at 2:20.244. The old record was 2:22.034.

In the 500m, the skater from North Korea Cheo Un Song, who's not often seen on the World Cup circuit, has established a new national mark at 41,790. The old one was at 42,402 and was dating back to 2015. Martin Kolenc from Croatia also set a new mark at 42,010. The old record was 42,709. Also in the 500m, Thailand's Triphop Thongngam stopped the clock at 42.503 lowering its own record previously set at 43.174.

Finally, in the 1000m, Thongngam also lowered his record to 1:28.937. Hanne Desmet of Belgium set a new national record, going from 1:29.942 to 1:29.482.

Obviously, I did not mention all the national records that have been beaten since January 1, 2019. You can access the whole list HERE

Last season 122 new national records were set. We are now at 144 and the World championships have not been competed yet. We will certainly see some more records fall by the end of the season!

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