A controversial track at the World Roller Games

The track competitions at the World Roller Games came to end on Thursday in Barcelona. The popular opinion concerning the success of the event is divided due to the controversial track the athletes competed on. 

By Jackob Savard

Photo: Skateworld Backstage

With the goal of having every discipline of the World Roller Games based in Barcelona, World Skate built a removable metal track which had never been tested before for the inline speed skating competitions. The skaters were not too vocal about the track while training on it prior to the competition and most of them talked about working on adapting their skating. When the event began, many started sharing their true feelings about the track.

Tom Herzog, the Austrian team coach, was one of the first to share his thoughts publicly: ‘’World Skate, the best trained athletes in the skating world - including world champions - look like total beginners on this unworthy and slippery track at the World Roller Games. You are not only wasting our time, but damage the reputation of roller sports. How should inline speed skating ever become an olympic sport if we provide a picture like this to the world?’’

This declaration was followed by another one from multiple-time world champion Gwendal le Pivert from France: ‘’What can I say except than World Skate doesn’t respect the athletes. Inline speed skaters from all around the world train hard, wake up early to chase a dream, a goal. Some are far from their family. Some members of this international federation like Erika Zanetti or Francesco Zangarini were incredible speed skaters and know the difficulties of being an elite athlete. But just for the show they built a removable metal track. Something completely different from what we normally use.‘’ This declaration from the French sprinter was also shared by many other skaters on social media. 

The Colombians were the one who performed the best on this track winning close to half the titles available for the senior and junior categories combined. You can read our track races recap HERE.

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Controversial relay and a shower of disqualifications

Korea won the 3000m relay in a controversial way on day 4 of the short track speed skating competition at the Gangneung ice palace.

By Jackob Savard

Photos by Martin Holtom and CBC

On day four, the ladies raced the 3000m relay finals and the 1000m qualification while the men raced the 500m qualifications.

Ladies' 1000m qualifications

Even if the majority of the favorites are through to the next round, there was still some surprises in the 1000m qualifications. Han Yutong from China, the olympic athlete from Russia Sofia Prosvirnova and Anna Seidel from Germany were all disqualified in their respective heats. Elise Christie who was back on the ice after an injury that occured in the 1500m seemed to have a hard time putting weight on her leg today. She received a yellow card after a tough race where she caused a lot of contact. Her Olympic games are now over. All the Korean and Canadian skaters advance to the next round and will be part of the favorites to win medals on this distance.

Men 500m qualifications

The action packed competition continued with the 500m qualifications heats on the men's side. Wu Dajing established a new olympic record of 40.264 in the first heat. A surprising Bartosz Konopko from Poland finished second in this race and advances to the next round. Another surprise as Roberts Zvejnieks from Latvia also managed to qualify for the quarter-finals in the following race. Thibaut Fauconnet, Vladislav Bykanov, Viktor Knoch, Sébastien Lepape, Semen Elistratov and 1000m olympic medalist John-Henry Krueger all had a tough times and didn’t advance. To add to these names, Charles Hamelin from Canada and Sjinkie Knegt from the Netherlands were both disqualified.

Ladies' 3000m relay final

It was a tight race between China, Korea, Italy and Canada in the ladies' relay final. A fall from a Korean skater, who was giving the exchange to her partner, took Canada and Italy down and changed drastically the race and the end result. Korea finished in first followed by China, but after a long wait, the referees announced that China and Canada were disqualified and would not step on the podium. The Koreans are officially the Olympic champions and Italy climbed to second place due to the disqualifications. The Dutch team who established a world record of 4:03.71 in the B final will be the bronze medalists on the distance. It means Jorien ter Mors won two olympic medals in two different sports at the same games since she won the 1000m in long track last week.

These decisions on the relay final led to different reactions from the teams that were involved.

Visit our special coverage page to find all our articles related to Pyeongchang 2018 by clicking HERE.

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