Minsk / Belarus

WCST6-Day2-Nikisha-634875574One-two finish for Kazakhstan in the Men’s 500 m final

Ye Jin Kim (KOR) lead from start to finish to win the Ladies 500 m. She finished ahead of the 2017 Lady European Champion, Arianna Fontana (ITA). Yara van Kerkhof (NED) claimed the third and final podium spot, finishing ahead of Veronique Pierron (FRA). Yang Liu (CHN) was the other skater in the final. Despite not competing this weekend, Marianne St-Gelais (CAN) clinches the World Cup title for the distance with 37,021 points. Elise Christie (GBR) earned three wins in the distance this season and finishes second in the World cup ranking with 35,264 points. Kexin Fan (CHN) ranks third overall with 33,616 points.

On the Men’s side, skaters from Kazakhstan finished in first and second place in the 500 m final: Denis Nikisha took the win followed by his teammate Abzal Azhgaliyev. Both skaters exchanged the lead throughout the race. Francois Hamelin (CAN) finished in third place, ahead of Joon Chun Kim (KOR). Dajing Wu (CHN) claims the overall World Cup title for the distance with three wins and 38,000 points. He is followed by Abzal Azhgaliyev (KAZ) with 34,433 points and Shaolin Sandor Liu (HUN) with 33,774 points.

Yutong Han (CHN) and Yong Jin Liu (KOR) with their respective 1000 m (2) final

In the second Ladies 1000 m, Yutong Han (CHN) won the race after taking the lead with one lap to go. She finished ahead of Rianne de Vries (NED) and Charlotte Gilmartin (GBR) who were in second and third place respectively. Sumire Kikuchi (JPN) received a penalty in the race. Suzanne Schulting (NED) moves ahead of Min Jeong Choi (KOR) to clinch the World Cup total for the distance. Schulting accumulated three podiums this season and 29,198 points. Choi sits second with 28,000 points followed by Elise Christie (GBR) at 21,678 points. Both skaters won the event twice this past season.

On the Men’s side, it was another Korean win in the 1000 m distance: this time, it was Yong Jin Liu who won the race. Thibaut Fauconnet (FRA) finished in second place, ahead of Nurbergen Zhumagaziyev (KAZ). Guillaume Bastille (CAN) finished in fourth place. The other skaters in the race included Vladislav Bykanov (ISR) who received a penalty, and Kyung Hua Hong (KOR) who did not finish the race. With one win during the World Cup 2016/17 Series, Shaoang Liu (HUN) clinches the title for the distance with 28,669 points. Thibaut Fauconnet (FRA) moved into second place overall with 27,517 points followed by Nurbergen Zhumagaziyev (KAZ) with 27,486 points.

WCST6-Day2-LadiesTeam-634893790Russia (Ladies) and Netherlands (Men) take gold in the Relay events

Russia won today’s Ladies 3000 m Relay final, followed closely by Italy. Third place finisher was Korea, while Canada finished fourth. Korea clinches the overall Ladies Relay World Cup title with four wins and 40,000 points. Netherlands follows with 34,000 points, and Canada finishes in third place with 27,200 points.

In the Men’s 5000 m Relay final, Netherlands won its first team event of this year’s World Cup Series and clinches the overall World Cup title for the distance. Russia finished second followed by Kazakhstan. China finished in fourth place. Netherlands finishes the season with 34,000 points, followed by China with 30,240 points. Hungary finished the 2016/17 World Cup series with the same amount of points as China however is ranked third overall.

For full results of the ISU World Cup Short Track Speed Skating Series 2016/17 please refer to http://shorttrack.sportresult.com/ and /en/speed-skating/series/isu-world-cup-speed-skating

The world’s best short track speed skaters will reconvene at the 2017 ISU World Short Track Speed Skating Championships in Rotterdam, Netherlands on March 10-12, 2017.