After the qualifying heats in the women's 500m and men's 1000m were held on Saturday, it was now time to crown some olympic champions on those distances.
By Carl Savard
Photo by Speed Skating Canada / Patinage de vitesse Canada / Greg Kolz
From the very beginning, a more than imperfect scenario awaited the Canadian athletes who had qualified for these quarter-final heats in the 500m as the three skaters would have to battle it out to reach the next round. Attempting to go all-in at the end of the race, Florence Brunelle of Canada ended up getting penalized, while her compatriots Kim Boutin and Alyson Charles were good to move on to the next round. This penalty in the first race was the first of a rather chaotic day in both the women's 500m and the men's 1000m. A chaos full of question marks that raised eyebrows and all through the day.
The women's 500m final was a dream final. A final that allowed us to witness a confrontation between the reigning world champion Suzanne Schulting, the greatest Olympic short track skater of all time, Arianna Fontana and the world record holder on the distance, Kim Boutin. China's Zhang Yuting and Belgium's Hanne Desmet were also on the starting line. We ended up getting the show we were waiting for as the great Arianna Fontana won her 10th Olympic medal in her career with a perfect pass on Suzanne Schulting. Schulting still got her 3rd career Olympic medal by winning silver while the bronze went to Canada's Kim Boutin. A 4th Olympic podium for Boutin who had also won bronze over the distance at the Pyeongchang Games in 2018.
In the men's 1000m, a recall of the race following a broken blade for safety reasons ended up giving us a soulless race. A final with athletes having burned a lot of fuel in the first start and officials overwhelmed by the number of race incidents that have occurred since the beginning of the day. China's Ren Ziwei finally won gold, finishing ahead of his compatriot Li Wenlong and Hungary's Liu Shaoang.
The action will resume on Wednesday with the 1000m qualifying heats and semi-final heats 3000m relay on the women's side of the competition and the full 1500m competition on the men's side.
For the complete schedule and results, please visit HERE
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