Surprises and fast times on Day 1 of World Cup Montreal

The second leg of the 2019-2020 World Cup season in short track started today in Montreal.

By Jackob Savard

Photo: Speed Skating Canada, Greg Kolz

Like it is always the case on Friday during World Cup events, it was qualifying day at the Maurice Richard Arena today. Skaters were trying to qualify for the top bracket of the weekend in every individual distances and in the relays. 

1000m (1) heats

Both the ladies' and men’s 1000m heats were full of surprises. It all started with a strong first ladies’ heat which ended with Lara van Ruijven not qualifying for the next round. Deanna Lockett, Véronique Pierron, Emina Malagich, Yara van Kerkhof and Qu Chunyu are some of the other skaters who didn’t qualify. Canadian Kim Boutin won the fastest heat and will look to continue on her success from last week. 

Similar situations happened in the men’s heats as they faced a tough 1+8 qualifying criteria over ten heats. Chinese Wu Dajing and Canadian Maxime Laoun were the two second position skaters who didn’t advance. Stijn Desmet, Denis Nikisha and Kim Dagyeom also missed their qualification. Canadian Cedrik Blais was the fastest skater in this round. 

1500m quarterfinals

The ladies’ 1500m quarterfinals were relatively calm with no disqualification nor crash and every medal contenders advanced to the next round for tomorrow. 

Japanese Keita Watanabe, Chineses Sun Long and Song Jia Hua and Korean Lee June Seo will be the biggest threats in the repechage rounds tomorrow morning as they were not able to qualify today on 1500m. Veteran Charles Hamelin won the fastest heat of the day with a time of 2:13.368 confirming to Canadian fans that he will be one of the skaters to watch tomorrow on the distance. 

500m heats

Maame Biney’s tough start this season continued today on 500m as she was penalized in the first heat. Reigning world champion on the distance Lara van Ruijven and Korean Noh Ah Rum will both need to skate in the repechage on Sunday. Kim Boutin, who established a new world record last week was the fastest in this round.

Just like in the 1000m (1) earlier today, Stijn Desmet, Denis Nikisha and Kim Dagyeom didn’t qualify for the top group. It is probably not the start the Belgian, the Kazakh and the Korean expected but they'll have a chance to climb back to the top group with the morning repechage. Liu Shaoang established the fastest time at this stage of the competition.

1000m (2) heats

Nothing much to say for the 1000m (2) qualification round for both the ladies’ and men’s side of the competition besides the fact that Koreans Kim Ji Yoo and Park Ji Won skated the fastest times.

Just like last week, qualifying day was a formality for skaters such as Kim Boutin, Suzanne Schulting, Liu Shaolin Sandor, Liu Shaoang, Hwang Dae Heon and some others. 

For the detailed individual distances results and relay results, click HERE

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