History: World short track championships in Montréal

The International Skating Union recently attributed the 2022 World short track championships to Montréal. Here is a look back at the past editions presented in Montreal.

By Jackob Savard

Photo: Tony Chung (shorttrackhd)

It will be the fifth time that Montreal will welcome the short track speed skating world championships and the fourth time at the end of an Olympic season. Montreal held these championships for the first time in 1987 and were also in charge of the 2002, 2014 and 2018 editions.

1987 - Canadian and Japanese performances

Canadian Michel Daignault finished atop of the podium of the 1987 World championships tied with Japanese skater Toshinobu Kawai. Dutch skater Charles Veldhoven finished third overall. Japanese Eiko Shishii was the winner in the ladies’ competition finishing ahead of Canadian star Nathalie Lambert. Eiko Shishii's teammate Mariko Kinoshita finished third.

2002 - A sixth consecutive title for Yang Yang (A)

In 2002, Chinese skater Yang Yang (A) won her sixth consecutive overall world champion title. She still holds the record for most World championships wins in career for a woman. Korean Ko Gi-hyun and Bulgarian Evgenia Radanova completed the ladies’ podium. The men’s competition was won by Korean Kim Dong-sung. Ahn Hyun-soo, also from Korea, finished second and Italian Fabio Carto took third.

2014 - Ahn Hyun-soo’s revival

The 2014 edition of these championships was won by Russian Viktor Ahn, who had already won five titles from 2003 to 2007 under the name of Ahn Hyun-soo while representing Korea. American J.R. Celski who skated an impressive 3000m and Canadian Charles Hamelin who won the 1500m finished second and third of the men’s ranking. In the ladies’ competition, Shim Suk-hee and Park Seung-hi took the first two positions finishing ahead of Canada's Valérie Maltais. One of the most spectacular relay races in a World Championships was raced at the 2014 World Championships when the Netherlands claimed a surprising victory thanks to a crazy last lap from Sjinkie Knegt. You can relive moments of this historic race HERE.

2018 - Charles Hamelin makes history

The most recent World Championships held in Montréal were one for the history books as Canada's Charles Hamelin won his first overall world champion title in career at the age of 33. Hungarian Liu Shaolin Sandor took the second position while Korean Hwang Dae-heon took third with his explosive 500m victory. In the ladies' portion of the competition, Korean Choi Min-jeong won the third World champion title of her young career in front of her teammate Shim Suk-hee and Chinese Li Jinyu. These Championships were also Marianne St-Gelais’s last international competition.

It would be hard to predict which athletes will end the 2022 Worlds at the top but we can already confirm that it will be an action packed weekend with the best speed skaters still pumped up following the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

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