Yesterday was the last
day of competition at EnergieVerbund Arena in Dresden, Germany and we
were served our portion of action.
By Caroline
Truchon
Valcepina in control on 500m
In the women's 500m,
Martina Valcepina had a great start to take the lead and keep it until the end to win the gold medal. Lara van Ruijven from the Netherlands and
Natalia Maliszewska from Poland followed in 2nd and 3rd place. The
positions remained unchanged throughout the race. Only Kim Boutin and
Elise Christie traded 4th and 5th place. Boutin started 5th on the
starting line after being advanced to the main final by the referee following a fall in the semifinals. It's good to see Elise Christie back in the
final legs of the World cup season, after good performances at the
European championships.
In the men's 500m,
we had a semifinal with six skaters, resulting in three falls and a
penalty. Hwang Dae Heon of Korea and Ren Ziwei of China came out
unscathed to qualify for the A final. It was Hwang who led the whole
race in the final to finally be overtaken by his teammate Lim Hyo Jun
at the finish line. Cédrik Blais of Canada took 3rd place with three laps to go and won the bronze medal, unable to find an opening to pass the two Korean leaders.
Schulting unbeatable on 1000m
In the women's
1000m, Saturday's winner Sofia Prosvirnova was
unfortunately the victim of a fall in the quarterfinal yesterday. Cynthia Mascitto was impressive once again Sunday, passing both Chinese skaters Zhang
Chutong and Zang Yize by the outside during the final lap of her quarterfinal. We
must underline the performance of Kristen Santos from the USA who
finished second in her quarterfinal behind Suzanne Schulting of the
Netherlands and ahead of Shim Suk Hee of Korea and Courtney Sarault
of Canada, on her path to the A final. During the final, Suzanne Schulting took the lead with seven laps to
go and kept it until the end to win the gold medal. Kim Ji Yoo of Korea and Zhang
Chutong of China finished 2nd and 3rd, respectively. Schulting won
every 1000m she participated in this season.
In the men's 1000m,
the skaters were aggressive from the start, which caused the fall of
Charles Hamelin after two laps. Shaolin Sandor Liu of Hungary took the
lead, but almost fell with two laps to go, which sent him to 4th place.
Park Ji Won of Korea then took the opportunity to pass from 4th place to
1st by passing Vladislav Bykanov of Israel and Sebastien Lepape from France, who finished 2nd and 3rd.
A lot of action in the relay events
In the mixed relay,
we had a good fight between Korea and Russia until the finish line.
The Koreans thought they had the win, but they were penalized for an action against the
Russians at the end of the last corner. Hungary finished 2nd and
Great Britain 3rd.
In the A final of the women's relay, the Dutch led a good part of the race. The Russians took the
lead with six laps to go with a superb passing by Emina Malagich. The
Dutch fell in the next lap and the Canadians were penalized on this
action for pushing with the arm. The Koreans finally overtook Russia
in the last corner to take the lead, but they were also penalized for
"Blocking by infield skater" on Canada with 3 ½ laps to
go. The Russians finished first followed by the Dutch. Only a gold and silver medal were awarded in this final.
In
the B final, there was a lot of action! The French fell after only
four laps to finally get back on with fifteen laps to go. With six laps to
go, a fall by a Polish skater was caused by a French skater, who was
penalized on the sequence based on the "Blocking by infield skater" rule.
The Kazakh finished first followed by the Americans. Poland finished third.
In the men's relay,
Canada controlled practically
the entire race. They definitely had a different strategy than the other teams. With thirty-one laps to go,
we were able to witness a shift in the exchanges. The Hungarians fell with sixteen laps to go.
Later in the race, the Chinese tried to overtake the Canadians,
without success, which led to a mess during the exchange in the next
corner. China was penalized on this action for "Lane
changes during exchange causing contact / obstruction". This allowed
the Japanese to come back in the race and take second place behind
Canada. Hungary finished third.
The B final was
rather calm. Italy took the lead in the last corner over
France to slip away with the win. France finished second, Kazakhstan
third and the Netherlands fourth. All points are important with only one World cup to go in order to qualify their team for the World
Championships.
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