The ladies’ team from Korea has defended its title at the World Short Track Speed Skating Team Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria. The men’s team of Canada has won its 6th title in the history of the World Team Championships.
The silver medals went to China in the ladies’ competition and to Korea in the men’s event. The ladies’ team from Italy and the men’s team from China took third place.
In both men’s and ladies’ events Canada and China qualified for the finals directly from the opening day brackets whereas Korea and Italy had to go through the repechages.

The newly crowned world champion ladies’ team, consisting of Eun-Kyung Choi, Ha-Ri Cho, Min-Jee Kim, Min-Jung Kim, Gi-Hyun won all the distances except the Relay, where their main rival the Chinese team was disqualified due to pushing the Canadian skater Amelie Nadon-Goulet at the final curve of the race. A few laps before the leading Korean racer had fallen and the title seemed to have gone, but she got back into the race and it paid off. Italy (Marta Capurso, Evelina Rodigari, Katia Zini, Mara Zini, Catia Borelo) were the beneficiaries in this dramatic race and the 10 points they gained raised their position from last to third place.
The gap between Korea and China had diminished to just 1 point after the 500m Final, where the team of the runners up (Tianyu Fu, Meng Wang, Chunlu Wang, Yang Yang (A), Xiaoying Liu) finished first in 3 races and were second in the other.
In the 3000m race immediately afterwards Korean skaters Eun-Kyung Choi and Min-Jee Kim were first and second, cementing their leading position.

The Italian ladies’ team, who were competing with the Bulgarian team in the Repechages to reach the Final, finally beat the team from Canada (Amelie Goulet-Nadon, Alanna Kraus, Amanda Overland, Annie Perreault, Tania Vicent), which was 2nd in the World  Cup rankings this season.

In the men’s event Canada  (Eric Bedard, Jonathan Guilmette, Jean-Francois Monette, Mathieu Turcotte, Jeffrey Scholten) became world champion for the sixth time since the beginning of world team championships 12 years ago in close competition with the men’s team of Korea (Hyun-Soo Ahn, Seung-Jae Lee, Se-Jong Oh, Suk-Woo Song, Jun-Hyung Yeo). The Koreans won the first race over 1000m gaining an advantage of just 1 point, while Canada finished ahead in the following 500m. Korea came back strongly in the 3000m, finishing 1st and 3rd, and reduced the gap to 2 points.
With an impressive race in the final 5000m relay, the Canadian team demonstrated the strength which had taken Canada to the head of the World Cup rankings this season.
The defending champions from China (Wei Guo, Haonan Li, JiaJun Li, Ye Li, Baoku Sui) had to make up a gap of 8 points to overtake second placed Korea. The Chinese team began the 5000m relay very ambitiously and eventually paid the price of being disqualified.

World Short Track Speed Skating Team Championships – Results

Ladies

		Points
1	Korea	44
2	China	31
3	Italy	22
4	Canada	21

Men

		Points
1	Canada	42
2	Korea	36
3	China	22
4	Italy	16

For complete results click here.