A look back at the 2019 Alta Valtellina Trophy

The 2019 Alta Valtellina Trophy welcomed skaters from all over Europe and Canada in Bormio, Italia last weekend.

By Jackob Savard

Photo: Bert van Lobenstein

The competition included skaters from many countries such as Italy, Russia, Canada, Great Britain who were divided in many categories from Senior to Junior D.

Friso Emons and Elena Viviani Senior winners

Young Dutch skater Friso Emons was victorious in the Senior men’s competition which included a 500m, a 1000m, a 1500m and a 3000m. Emons won the two longer distances: the 1500m and the 3000m, finished 2nd on 1000m and 9th on 500m. Russian Artem Kozlov finished 2nd overall winning the 500m and the 1000m. Finishing 3rd in the classification was Italian Davide Viscardi who collected Top-8 results in every distances. His best performance was a silver medal on 500m. 

Italian Elena Viviani had a great weekend collecting two 1st place, a 2nd place and a 6th place to ensure her top spot in the overall ranking. Kathryn Thomson from Great Britain finished 2nd winning the 500m and Lucia Peretti from Italy took 3rd with a strong win on 3000m.

Russians at the top in the Junior A group

Seven of the ten best men’s skaters and five of the best ten women’s skaters of the Junior A group were Russians including both winners and 3rd place finishers. Svetlana Tyuleneva won the ladies’ group in front of Canada’s Megan Boudrias and Russia’s Ludmila Kozulina while it was Vladimir Balbekov who won it in the men’s competition. Italian Luca Spechenhauser and Russian Daniil Krasnokutskiy completed the men’s podium.

Canadians in Bormio

Young Canadian skaters competed in the Senior, Junior A and Junior B group. The best overall classification performances from Canadian skaters were Juliette Brindamour’s 4th place in the Senior, Megan Boudrias’ 2nd place in the Junior A group, Miao Qi’s 2nd place in the Junior B category and Alexandre Migner’s win in the Junior B men’s classification.

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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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Suzanne Schulting and Liu Shaolin crowned 2019 European champions

A strong organisation, an action packed weekend, local favorites offering a great show and a crowd raising the roof, here is our recap of Day 3 at the 2019 European championships in short track.

By Carl Savard

Photos by Bert van Lobenstein and Danny Kim

1000m - A lot of action on both sides of the board

In the absence of Suzanne Schulting, penalised in the semifinal, the competition in the main final on 1000m was set to be tighter. Her absence also meant that important points were available for the overall ranking. All eyes were on Elise Christie who had done well the previous day on 1500m but she had to fight Lara van Ruijven, Sofia Prosvirnova, Tifany Huot-Marchand and Ekaterina Efremenkova. After leading for a good portion of the race, Christie was passed by Prosvirnova (1st) and Huot-Marchand (2nd) but was able to get on the podium finishing 3rd. On the men’s side, there was also a noticeable absence as Liu Shaoang had suffered a fall following a penalised action by Vladislav Bykanov in their semifinal. Russia’s Semen Elistratov won the title on the distance finishing ahead of Liu Shaolin Sandor (2nd) and Denis Ayrapetian (3rd).

3000m super final - Schulting was just too strong

Even though the 3000m is the black sheep event in short track, some athletes can show us their game in terms of strategy or just prove how strong they are at the end of a grueling weekend. That’s definitely the case with Suzanne Schulting who played cat and mouse for most of the race before using the last five laps to exhibit her overall strength. Belgium’s Hanne Desmet finished 2nd while Elise Christie crossed the finish line in 3rd place. On the men’s side, Yuri Confortola and Vladislav Bykanov escaped the pack and left the others behind but Confortola was just too strong for Bykanov yesterday. Confortola finished 1st followed by Bykanov and Liu Shaoang.

Team relay

On the men’s 5000m relay event, the world record holder team of Hungary won the title on the distance. They were joined on the podium by the Dutch and the Russians. Team France was penalised in the final. In the women’s 3000m relay final, the Dutch were crowned champion while Hungary and Russia finished respectively 2nd and 3rd.

Suzanne Schulting and Liu Shaolin Sandor crowned overall champions

The crowd gathered for this exciting weekend left with the pride of seeing one of their own being crowned European champion at home as Suzanne Schulting finished first in the overall ranking. Sofia Prosvirnova finished 2nd while 2017 world champion Elise Christie finished in 3rd place. Another crowd favorite finished in the top 10 as Lara van Ruijven closed the competition in 7th place. In the absence of last year’s champion Sjinkie Knegt, we knew that a new champion would be crowned for the men and Hungary’s Liu Shaolin Sandor is your 2019 European champion. He finished ahead of his brother Liu Shaoang. Semen Elistratov finished 3rd overall.  

With the conclusion of the European championships in short track, only four major events are left on the ISU calendar this season. The World junior championships that will be held in Canada in two weeks, two legs of the World cup season to be held in Germany and Italy and finally the World championships that will take place in Bulgaria.

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Saluting national records: Bulletin #3, December 2018

Par Caroline Truchon

Photo par Danny Kim

When it came to breaking national records in short track, last December's World cup #3 saw the smaller countries having a lot of success. Eleven records were broken, for a total of 93 this season before the start of the European championships that are going on right now. New national records were beaten after Almaty in other competitions.

On 1500m, Singapore's Trevor Tan broke Lucas Ng's old record twice over the weekend in Kazakhstan by 0.147 to set it at 2:23.517. Thailand's Triphop Thongngam broke a 2013 record set by Teerit Vongkovit placing it at 2:22.936. The old record was 2:23.758. Finally, the local crowd saw one of their own, Olga Tikhonova, lower the national mark at 2:21.260 which previously belonged to Long A Kim at 2:22.265.

In the 500m, Oleh Handei of Ukraine lowered his own mark twice during the competition to establish a 41.236, compared to 41.563 from last year in Montreal. Belarusian Hanna Izafatava set a new national record at 44.894. The old record was 44.993, owned by Vera Trybul. Singapore's Trevor Tan broke another of Lucas Ng's record bringing the one on 500m down to 43.094. Thailand's Triphop Thongngam also reduced his own mark in the 500m by almost a second (!), from 44.035 to 43.174.

In the 1000m, only Poland's Natalia Maliszewska lowered the national mark to set it at 1:28.866. The old record belonged to Magdalena Warakomska at 1:30.263. Natalia now owns the national records on 500m and 1000m.

In the relay, Belarus lowered their national mark on the women side by almost a second, from 4:24.946 to 4:24.074, thanks to the efforts of Hanna Izafatava, Mariya Izafatava, Katsiaryna Chystaya and Volha Talayeve.

Finally, two other records were beaten after Almaty. The 1000m women's national record of Bosnia and Herzegovina was beaten by more than 3 seconds at the Alpe Adria Trophy - Serbian Open on December 2nd. Samra Selimbegovic set a new mark at 1:40.020. The old record also belonged to her at 1:43.226. Augustin Géré of Luxembourg lowered his own mark in the 1000m set in Salt Lake City earlier this season, with a time of 1:26.22, compared to 1:26.535.

With a total of 93 national records so far this season, I'm not worried that we're going to pass the 100 mark. With Dordrecht, Montreal and Dresden coming in the second half of the season, we'll definitely see a lot more records fall. To see the full record sheet click HERE.

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Mid-season bulletin in short track: the Netherlands

In this installment of our mid-season bulletin series in short track, it’s now time to talk about the Netherlands.

By Carl Savard

Photo by Danny Kim

The team trained by Jeroen Otter is probably the best overall Dutch team in the history of short track. The women especially, started the season with some great results.

The Olympic effect

It’s quite clear when you look at the results of Dutch female leaders Suzanne Schulting and Yara van Kerkhof that their Olympic experience had quite an impact when it comes to their confidence. While she was known to be a bit of a kamikaze on the ice, Schulting started being more disciplined last season and the change culminated in an Olympic championship after a flawless course on 1000m during the Games. It’s with the same energy that she started this new season gathering three gold medals on 1000m securing her domination on the distance. The twenty-one-year-old athlete also added gold and silver medals on 1500m and a silver one on 500m in Salt Lake City in the second leg of the World cup season. Schulting also helped the Netherlands win two silver medals in the mix relay event and one gold in the female relay in Almaty. The Queen of 1000m has just been crowned female athlete of the year in the Netherlands. A well deserved honor.

The 2017-18 season was also a year of revelations for Yara van Kerkhof who finally realised she could be a force to be reckoned with. Believing in herself has brought her all the way up to a silver medal on 500m in Pyeongchang. A medal that gave her wings. Even though she won only one individual medal in the first three events of the World cup season, a silver on 500m in Calgary, she also finished in the top 5 three more times and she looks confident on the ice. Rianne de Vries who fractured an ankle in 2017 seems to be back in top form. She finished 4th three times this fall and offered solid performances in the relay events. The aura of confidence surrounding the Dutch team seems to have given some punch to Lara van Ruijven also. The twenty-six-year-old skater won her first individual gold medal on the World cup circuit on 500m in Calgary. Even though Avalon Aardoom was probably hoping for more, the 1500m specialist could eventually surprise considering the quality of athletes and coaches surrounding her at this stage of her career.

Some instability on the man’s side

Hard to take the same approach to talk about the men has their individual results are linked to only one skater but they did great teamwise. Out of Sjinkie Knegt, Daan Breeuwsma, Dennis Visser, Itzhak de Laat and Jasper Brunsmann, only Knegt climbed on an individual podium so far this season. The 2015 world champion won gold on 1500m in Salt Lake City, won silver on 1000m in Almaty and added a fourth place finish on 1500m also in Almaty. De Laat, Breeuwsma and Emons were able to reach B finals a few times. In mix relay events, Breeuwsma and Knegt helped the team win silver medals in Calgary and Salt Lake City while the men’s relay team won bronze in Calgary and climbed on the highest step of the podium in Almaty. Although Sjinkie Knegt suffered an injury at home a few weeks ago that may slow him down in the future, the Dutch team still is a strong unit.

Next stop for the Dutch skaters? The European championships at home in Dordrecht starting on the 11th of January. After that, the World cup season will continue in Dresden, Germany on February 1st to 3rd before concluding in Torino, Italy on the weekend of February 8th to 10th.

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Saluting national records: Bulletin #2, 2018-11-22

Par Caroline Truchon

Photo par Danny Kim

The first two World Cups are now behind us and we witnessed some exceptional performances. 75 national records were beaten, for a total of 79 so far this season.

Two world records were shattered, one in Calgary and one in Salt Lake City. The first one was at the men’s 5000m relay, a record that belonged to the American team and is now in the hands of the Hungarian team. The second is the result of the domination of China's Wu Dajing on 500m. He was already holder of the 500m world record since the last Olympic games. He improved the record by 0.079 seconds, but every improvement in this record is a huge achievement in itself. I personally believe that within 4 years, we will see the 39 seconds bar being crossed. The bets are open!

Several other performances are worth highlighting, I have analyzed a few for you:

• Let’s start with Luxembourg, the country that broke the most national records during these first two stages. The 500m record was 42.961 at the beginning of the season, it is now 41.411 and belongs to Augusté Géré. It’s an improvement of 1.55 seconds, which is huge!
• In the 1000m, still on the men’s side, the national record was 1:29.288. After two weekends of competition, it is still Augustin Géré who holds this record, but with an improvement of 2.753 seconds. The record is now at 1:26.535.
• Also, for Luxembourg, but this time on the women’s side, Caroline Murphy improved the national records of the 500m and 1000m by 2 seconds during the two World Cups to set a 45.052 and 1:34.171 respectively.

• A new country has joined the World Cup scene and it is the Philippines. Julian Macaraeg holds the 500m record with a time of 43.936, an improvement of half a second. In the 1000m, it is also Macaraeg who holds the record, with a time of 1:29.658, improving it by 6.6 seconds! On the other hand, it is in the 1500m that we saw the biggest improvement, passing from 2:32.645 to 2:23.477(!!!), the record is now owned by Marc Gonzales.
  
  

• The oldest record that was smashed belongs to the Belgian Stijn Desmet, who broke the 500m national record owned by Wim de Deyne since February 2009, almost 10 years ago!
• Still on the Belgian side, it is necessary to underline the performance of Hanne Desmet in the 1000m. She knocked off her national record by more than 3 seconds, from 1:30.860 to 1:27.537.
• Other very old records have also been broken. Aaron Tran of the United States broke a 2010 record owned by Jeff Simon in the 1500m, bringing the record under 2min10sec with a 2:09.928.
• Yuri Confortola from Italy did the same thing in the 1000m this time, also beating a 2010 record, owned by Nicolas Bean, skating a time of 1:23.354 on the distance.

• Natalia Maliszewska improved her own national record from 42.808 to 42.587, which is significant in the 500m. She is getting dangerously close to Elise Christie’s world record (42.335). It will be interesting to see her progress over the next competitions and following seasons.
• The Hungarians improved their national record in the 500m by more than half a second (0.606). Liu Shaoang is now the national record holder with 39.699 settled in Salt Lake City, compared to 40.305 set in February 2017 by his brother.
• Cheyenne Goh improved her own national record in the 1000m by almost 3 seconds. The record is now a time of 1:33.709, compared to 1:36.513 set at the last World Championships in Montreal in March.

• The Japanese women broke their national record in the relay by more than two seconds, which dated from 2012! The same goes for the Japanese men as well as the Canadians who broke their national record in the relay, also dating back to 2012.
• This record can be surprising but unless I'm making a mistake, the Dutch broke their national record in the 5000m relay by almost 8 seconds, from 6:36.198 to 6:28.879!
• The Polish women also improved their national record in the relay by more than 3 seconds going from 4:14.047 to 4:10.932.
• Still on the relay side, the Russian women lowered their 3000m national record by almost 4 seconds, to set it at 4:03.925. The old record was 4:07.842.

Obviously, I have not been able to highlight all the new national records and there are other great performances that have been made during the first two World Cups. You can find them HERE

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Steven Dubois chases Wu Dajing under the 40 seconds mark

Day one of a new season is always highly exciting and yesterday’s start of the 2018-2019 World cup season in Calgary featured some exciting highlights.

By Carl Savard

Photo by Danny Kim

It’s at the Olympic oval in Calgary that was launched the 2018-19 short track speed skating season yesterday. Preliminaries, Heats and some Quarterfinals races were skated to qualify athletes for the main event of the weekend.

Wu Dajing and Steven Dubois go under 40 seconds
If reigning overall world champion Charles Hamelin started his season on 500m with a penalty and Hungary’s Liu Shaoang will have to go through the rep-quarterfinals to earn his place in the big show on the distance that will be raced twice this weekend, the talk of the day on 500m was the performance of Canada’s newcomer Steven Dubois. After going through the Preliminary stage of the 500(1) finishing 2nd of his wave with a time of 41.405 seconds, the twenty-one-year-old from Lachenaie, Canada was able to keep with the pace of Chinese superstar Wu Dajing in the next round finishing second with a time of 39.845, a new Canadian record and one of the fastest time ever raced on the distance. Calgary will definitely keep its title of fastest ice on earth and the main event on 500m this weekend should bring some firework.

On the women’s side, Korea’s Shim Suk-hee won’t skate on the first 500m of the weekend following a fall alongside Lara van Ruijven in their first race of the season but both women were able to qualify for the 500m (2). China’s Fan Kexin raced the fastest 500m of the day on the women’s board with a time of 43.395 seconds.

Canada on 1500m

The host country came one skater short of qualifying all its skaters to the semi-finals on 1500m on Friday. Samuel Girard and Charle Cournoyer qualified for the main event while Pascal Dion was advanced following a penalty to Russia’s Dennis Ayrapetyan. On the women’s side Claudia Gagnon and Courtney Sarault both qualified while Camille De Serres-Rainville came up short. “I would have liked to feel better on the ice. I was nervous and I made some bad decisions. I wish I would have been more aware of what the others were doing but I’ll learn from it. For a first World cup race, it was ok.” De Serre-Rainville will skate this morning in the rep-quarterfinals. A second chance for her to join the rest of the Canadian skaters in the semis on the distance. No real surprise when it comes to the rest of the world on 1500m as all the bests were able to go through this stage.

A bumpy contest on 1000m
Penalties, no time, yellow card, big names out of the equation and new names on top. Such a portrait should make for an interesting competition on the distance Sunday. While Canada’s Sarault, Desmarais, De Serre-Rainville, Dubois are all in, veterans Hamelin and Cournoyer will have to face each other in heat number two of the rep-quarterfinals. For the Netherlands, Schulting, van Kerkhof and de Laat move on while Breeuwsma, Emons and Aardoom will have to battle again to earn their spots. France’s Véronique Pierron is through to the next round but her long time teammate Thibaut Fauconnet couldn’t qualify on Friday. Every Korean and Chinese skaters registered on 1000m today qualified for the main event.

Relay, relay and mixed relay!
On the men’s side, Hungary, Canada, China and Japan will face each others in one of the semifinals Saturday while Korea will battle it out with Italy, the Netherlands and the United States.

On the women’s side, Korea, Kazakhstan, Canada and China will try to qualify for the big final while the Netherlands, Russia, Japan and Italy will do the same in the second semifinal.

As for the mixed relay event, China, Russia, Korea and Hungary will be part of the first semi while the Netherlands, the United States, Canada and Kazakhstan will be part of the second one. Athletes will definitely need to make some adjustments in this new event. Team France was penalised in their quarterfinal after a good start but a mix-up in an exchange while Japan who qualified both its men’s and women’s team was not able to qualify its mixed team to the next round.

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