It is with a lot of action that this third leg of the short track speed skating World cup circuit came to an end today in Shanghai. The skaters will be back in action next thursday in Korea.
Text: Carl Savard
Photos: Martin Holtom
Kim Boutin repeats
From the get go, Kim Boutin from Canada looked a step ahead of the competition in her quarterfinal race. Winner of the 500m yesterday, the Canadian great seemed in total control of the situation. Arianna Fontana and Veronique Pierron followed Boutin at the finish line advancing to the semis. Pierron's qualification was based on her time. In the following heats, Suzanne Schulting from the Netherlands, Korea’s Lee Yu Bin and Shim Suk Hee, Russia’s Sofia Prosvirnova, Valérie Maltais from Canada and Katherine Reutter from the USA also qualified for the semifinals. Following a misstep from another skater, Marianne St-Gelais was advanced to the semifinals. Australia’s Deanna Lockett would also move forward due to her time. In the semifinals, Kim Boutin was again really strong and just like in the previous round, Marianne St-Gelais was advanced to the A final but this time due to a penalty to Shim Suk Hee. In the main event, Boutin and St-Gelais led the pack while Schulting, Fontana, Lee and Prosvirnova battled for third place. At the end, Fontana prevailed on the other three to win the bronze and join Boutin and St-Gelais on the podium. A second gold medal for Boutin this weekend.
Wu Dajing pleases the local crowd
The 1000m races were as exciting on the men’s side as they were on the ladies' side. Charles Hamelin, Wu Dajing, Liu Shaoang, Keita Watanabe, Park Se Yeong, Hwang Dae Heon, Kwak Yoon Gy, Liu Shaolin Sandor, Han Tianyu and John-Henry Krueger moved from the quarterfinals to the semis to offer us a ton of action. If the Liu brothers were the story of the first wave of the semifinals, Korea’s Kwak Yoon Gy and China’s Wu Dajing would come out on top in the second wave. Just like on the ladies' side, yesterday’s winner of the gold medal on 500m also won gold on 1000m as local hero Wu Dajing climbed on the highest step of the podium. Silver went to Liu Shaolin Sandor while the bronze was won by his brother Liu Shaoang.
Two penalties, a world record and a surprising win
On the women's relay event, team Canada was penalised while Korea won gold finishing ahead of China and Italy. On the men’s side, Canada couldn’t get a third victory this season as a move from China’s Wu Dajing caused a fall to Charle Cournoyer and Dajing himself. Korea and the USA stepped on the gas trying to make sure that Canada and China would not be able to come back which led to the race turning into a world record event. On the last lap, J.R. Celski, world record holder on 500m, was able to beat Korea’s Park Se Yeong and at the same time help his team beat the world record on the distance with a time of 6:29.052. The old record was held by Canada and it was five years old. Nobody would have bet on the USA to win in the relay event this weekend let alone beat the world record.
The short track traveling circus now moves to Korea for the fourth and last World cup event of the season starting on thursday.
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