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Post by Admin on Jan 22, 2021 6:23:09 GMT
Short track speed skaters are set to compete at a major International Skating Union (ISU) competition for the first time in nearly a year when Gdańsk hosts the European Championships this weekend. Competitors will have little time to shake off any rustiness at the event, which begins tomorrow and concludes on Sunday (January 24). It is scheduled to be the first short track event held by the ISU since a World Cup in Dordrecht in The Netherlands in February 2020. Seven-time overall European champion Arianna Fontana of Italy will be among the notable absentees in Gdańsk as she has decided to skip the event to focus on the World Championships in Dordrecht in March. The British team, including former world and European overall champion Elise Christie, withdrew from the Championships due to travel restrictions imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic. Tributes could be paid to Dutch star Lara van Ruijven, gold medallist in the 500 metres at the 2019 World Championships, who died at the age of 27 last year, during the event.  Olympic 1,000m gold medallist and four-time world champion Suzanne Schulting will be hoping to justify her status as the women's world number one at the Championships in the Polish city, where athletes will compete in individual distances as well as for the overall European title. Hungarian brothers Shaolin Sandor and Shaoang Liu arrive as favourites for the men's overall crown. Dutch skater Sjinkie Knegt is also expected to challenge the formidable Hungarian pair, while his compatriot Itzhak de Laat is among the potential outsiders. The event at Hala Olivia begins with qualification rounds tomorrow. |
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Post by Admin on Jan 23, 2021 1:03:16 GMT
The first day of the 2021 International Skating Union European Short Track Speed Skating Championships saw most - but not all - of the favourites progress in Gdańsk in Poland. In the women's 1500 metres, The Netherlands Suzanne Schulting is through to the semi-finals, starting off her title defence in impressive fashion. German Anna Seidel, a bronze medallist from 2020, finished second in her heat to also progress. Russia's Sofia Prosvirnova and Ekaterina Efremenkova, Belgium's Hanne Desmet, Italy's Amanda Sighel and Dutch skater Xandra Velzeboer all won their respective heats. Schulting also won her heat in the 500m, as did Italy's 2020 silver medallist Martina Valcepina and Poland's bronze medallist Natalia Maliszewska. Dutch skaters Velzeboer and Selma Poutsma, Italy's Cynthia Mascitto and Russia's Evgeniya Zakharova won 500m heats also. Schulting won again in the 1000m heats along with Seidel, Mascitto, Prosvirnova, Efremenkova, Desmet and France's Tifany Huot-Marchand. In the 3,000m relay, Russia, The Netherlands and France won their quarter-finals to progress alongside Poland, Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic and Hungary.  The biggest surprise of day one came in the men's 1500m as the reigning champion Shaoang Liu of Hungary was disqualified in his heat, while his brother Shaolin Sandor Liu made it safely through by winning his race. The seven winners of those heats came from six countries, with the others Hungary's John-Henry Krueger, Israel's Vladislav Bykanov, The Netherlands' Itzhak de Laat, Latvia's Roberts Kruzbergs, Russia's Semen Elistratov and Belgium's Stijn Desmet. De Laat and Bykanov were last year's silver and bronze medallists respectively. Both Liu brothers had no issues getting through their heats in the 500m, and neither did defending bronze medallist Elistratov. De Laat, Desmet and Bykanov were also winners in their races, as were the Russian pair of Denis Ayrapetyan and Konstantin Ivliev. |
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Post by Admin on Jan 24, 2021 2:51:04 GMT
LIVE 🔴 | Day 3 | ISU World Cup Speed Skating | #SpeedSkating
The Netherlands lived up to their billing as one of speed skating's dominant forces on day two of the International Skating Union (ISU) Speed Skating World Cup in Heerenveen, winning five out of the six finals.
In the women's 1500 metres, Brittany Bowe of the United States was a clear winner ahead of the Dutch pair of Ireen Wüst and Antoinette de Jong, who joined her on the podium.
Bowe was the only non-Dutch winner today and further down, The Netherlands' Irene Schouten and Kazakhstan's Nadezhda Morozova set personal bests in sixth and seventh.
In the men's equivalent it was an all-Dutch podium, with Thomas Krol emerging with the gold medal on home ice.
Finishing more than a second ahead of his closest challenger, Krol was joined by team mates Patrick Roest and Kjeld Nuis in second and third, while Wesly Dijs and Louis Hollaar ensured The Netherlands locked out the top five.
Dutch skater Femke Kok set a new personal best to win the women's 500m gold medal in 37.089sec.
Russia's Angelina Golikova won the silver, while Heather McLean of Canada finished in third, 0.01 ahead of Russian Olga Fatkulina.
LIVE 🔴 | Day 3 | ISU European Short Track Speed Skating Championships | #ShortTrackSkating
Another gold medal went the way of The Netherlands in the men's 500m, thanks to Dai Dai Ntab, the reigning European silver medallist.
Only 0.02 separated runner-up Laurent Dubreuil of Canada and fourth-place Polish skater Piotr Michalski.
Russia's Ruslan Murashov, the world champion in 2019, was sandwiched between the pair in third.
Schouten ensured it was another Dutch win in the women's mass start while Canada's Ivanie Blondin and Schouten's compatriot Marijke Groenewoud collected the silver and bronze medals respectively.
In the men's equivalent, The Netherlands finished the day on a high with a victory for Arjan Stroetinga.
Switzerland's Livio Wenger was the runner-up and Belgium's Bart Swings third.
This is the first of back-to-back ISU Speed Skating World Cups in Heerenveen, with the event due to conclude tomorrow.
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Post by Admin on Jan 24, 2021 22:59:32 GMT
Heather McLean and Isabelle Weidemann were the top Canadian long track skaters on the final day of the ISU World Cup Speed Skating in Heerenveen, the Netherlands, narrowly missing out on a podium spot in their respective distances.
After winning a bronze medal in yesterday’s first 500m race of the weekend, Winnipeg’s McLean finished just 0.11 seconds off the podium in Sunday’s second 500m, settling for a fourth-place finish (37.522) behind Femke Kok of the Netherlands (37.276) and Russian’s Angelina Golikova (+0.02) and Olga Fatkulina (+0.13). The 28-year old also place 11th in the women’s 1000m.
Meanwhile, Ottawa’s Isabelle Weidemann posted the fifth-best time in the women’s 3000m, clocking in at 3:59.437. The Dutch trio of Irene Schouten (3:57.155), Antoinette de Jong (+1.36) and Joy Beune (+1.75) swept the podium. It’s an encouraging start to the season for the long-distance specialist, who earned four individual World Cup medals last season (two gold, two bronze) and narrowly missed the 5000m podium at the World Championships, finishing sixth.
Earlier in the day, Canadian sprinter Laurent Dubreuil, who won silver in the 500m on Saturday, was dealt a disappointing blow during his second 500m race.
His racing counterpart Ruslan Murashov of Russia lost control and slide into Dubreuil’s outside lane, forcing the native of Lévis, Que., to slow down and swerve away from the fallen skater to avoid a potential collision. He was permitted a solo re-skate shortly after, but under the difficult circumstances could only muster a time of 35.139, good for 15th place.
In addition to McLean and Weidemann’s top-5 results, three Canadian skaters cracked the top-10 on Sunday.
In the men’s 5000m, Toronto’s Jordan Belchos earned Canada’s best result, placing seventh with a time of 6:18.054; Calgary’s Gilmore Junio posted the fastest time in the men’s 500m (34.816), which ranked him ninth overall; and Dubreuil was ninth (1:08.880) in the first 1000m race of the season.
Despite not reaching the podium on the final day of competition, Canada concluded the first World Cup of the condensed international campaign with a surprising five medals – one gold, two silver and two bronze.
ISU World Cup action continues next weekend, January 29-31, with the second consecutive competition in Heerenveen, the Netherlands. CBC Sports will have live streaming coverage of the races; visit the schedule for broadcast and streaming times in your area.
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Post by Admin on Jan 25, 2021 22:27:09 GMT
Brittany Bowe returned to the top of the 1000m World Cup podium Sunday, hoping to start another speed skating win streak. This is her 29th career World Cup win and 18th in the 1000m, though her first in that distance in more than a year.
At the first of back-to-back World Cups held in a bubble environment in Heerenveen, Netherlands, Bowe won the penultimate race of the weekend in 1:13.607, two seconds slower than her world record but just 0.367 off the track record she set in December 2018.
Pumping her fist as she finished, Bowe beat out the Netherlands’ Jorien ter Mors, the reigning Olympic champion at this distance who finished in 1:13.943, and her countrywoman Femke Kok (1:14.076). Kok won the 500m earlier in the day in 37.276 seconds, where Bowe was sixth.
Bowe had won seven consecutive 1000m World Cup races from Dec. 7, 2018-Dec. 14, 2019, the longest win streak by any American woman at that distance, before finishing sixth in a February 2020 race in Calgary, Alberta. She returned to the podium in March by finishing second in Heerenveen, but can begin a new streak with a win in next weekend’s race.
Having also won the 1500m on Saturday, this is Bowe’s first time winning both races in a single weekend since Feb. 2-3, 2019.
Track records were set in distance events by Dutch skaters Irene Schouten and Patrick Roest, with Schouten winning the 3000m in 3:57.155 and Roest the 5000m in 6:05.145.
Thomas Krol, also of the Netherlands, pulled off the same double as Bowe. His winning time in the 1000m was 1:07.486.
Russia’s Artem Arefyev won the men’s 500m in a personal best 34.459 seconds for his first World Cup victory.
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