Defending overall champion Park Ji Won (KOR) made a clear statement with his 1000m victory at the 2023/24 ISU World Cup Short Track Speed Skating in Dresden (GER) on Saturday, extending his lead in the World Cup standings with one day left of this season's penultimate weekend.
The 27-year-old Korean, who won last year's overall Crystal Globe, has collected a total of 781 points already this season and has a 28-point advantage over second placed Steven Dubois (CAN) as he bids to retain the trophy.
2023 Crystal Globe winner Park Ji Won (KOR) won the 1000m from Felix Roussel (CAN) to strengthen his hold on the trophy. @ISU
"One Crystal Globe is not enough. I've got two hands and I want to have one trophy in each of them," Park said about his drive to defend his title.
"I always look at my helmet number - it is 1. And that is important to me. It reminds me that everything is possible and motivates me to stay No.1 for the rest of the season."
In the first 1000m final of two this weekend, Park took the second place in lap four of nine, saving energy behind Italy's Thomas Nadalini in first place. With three laps to go, however, Nadalini fell. Park took over first position and fenced off any attempts to pass him to clinch his third individual victory this season. Canada's Felix Roussel took silver as Dubois won the bronze.
"It was a pretty difficult race because there were two Canadian skaters up there in the front," Park said.
"All I saw was Canadian athletes – on my inside and on my outside – so it felt very important for me to win this one."
Dubois had got his pace up on the last lap and looked like he could pass the leader but Park had made sure not to give his opponent any space to do that.
Steven Dubois (CAN), right, is Park's closest rival in the race for the Crystal Globe but could only take bronze in the 1000m. @ISU
"It was a good block because he had to," Dubois said.
"I was having more speed coming into the end. He was seeing everything so it was really hard to pass him. But I tried."
Dubois left the ice with a feeling that he "could have done more".
"I tried to go for the win at the end but it didn't play out, I lost the position. There's still some stuff I have to work on," he said.
"Beating Ji Won is so hard, he's almost perfect all around so I've just got to keep trying to beat him. He'll make some mistakes and one day it'll click. I'm not so happy with the third place but it's still a medal."
The 26-year-old 500m World silver medalist tries not to think too much about adding points to his overall score.
"It's very tight. But I think my best two distances are to come next week so right now I'm not going to focus too much on the overall for the moment and then with the double 500m next week I'm going to try to get as many points as I can," he said.
Dandjinou cruises to 1500m victory
Dubois’ teammate William Dandjinou won the men's 1500m race and is third overall with 704 points, 77 behind leader Park. Dandjinou took the lead in lap nine of 14 and kept it for the remaining five, cruising to the victory a quarter of a second ahead of runner-up Stijn Desmet (BEL). Overall No.4 Kim Gun Woo (KOR) finished third.
William Dandjinou (CAN) won the 1500m with a dominant performance to sit third in the Crystal Globe race. @ISU
"I feel blessed. It's been a long season and sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure it's real because I come from not having that good results, so I'm really happy about that," Dandjinou said.
It was his third 1500m victory this season.
"It's great that I can win today, especially since the Crystal Globe race is so close, that just helps my case even more."
The 22-year-old Canadian topped the rankings for just under an hour before the 1000m points were awarded, but said he tried to not think about that.
"I try to think of one race at the time, I don't want to take my focus away from the actual race, but afterwards it's hard not to think about it," he said.
It had been a tactic to go early and avoid getting into the intense battle for podium spots that was played-out behind him.
"I always try to do that. I try to control the pack so that they fight but I don't have to fight so much, even if I'm in front."
Stijn Desmet (BEL), left, and Kim Gun Woo (KOR), right, joined Dandjinou on the 1500m podium in Dresden. @ISU
But after switching gears midway through the race he was afraid he had gone too soon.
"I tried accelerating a little bit, then I saw 'six laps' on the counter and was like 'Ouch, that's going to be a long six laps'," Dandjinou admitted.
"So I did one big lap, slowed down just a little bit and then for three and a half laps giving it my all."
He was afraid that Kim would pass him in the end.
"I know Kim Gun Woo, who is a really fierce competitor, is really good on the outside," he said.
"It was pretty tight so I was confident that no-one was going to pack me inside. But the fact that it was tight meant that someone could pass me outside. So I was trying to figure out a way to handle that if he would have come on the outside.
"But when two laps rang I just felt 'I got it' and just finished and brought it home."
USA and Netherlands mix it up in thrilling relay
The Mixed Team 2000m Relay turned into a thriller as the United States and Netherlands battled it out for the gold medal.
The two teams switched between first and second place for the entire race but the United States came out with the gold medal after Andrew Heo (USA) managed to get past Friso Emons (NED) on the 18th and final lap.
Andrew Heo (USA) celebrates Mixed Relay victory ahead of Netherlands' Friso Emons at the end of an exciting battle. @ISU
"It was really exciting. We work really hard on our relays so having it come together was really nice," said Kristen Santos-Griswold, who clinched the USA's first relay race this season with Heo, Marcus Howard and Corinne Stoddard.
"Ultimately I feel like it was something I knew we could always do, we just needed to get out there and figure it out and today we did."
Netherlands kept a tight grip on the Mixed 2000m Relay rankings and Xandra Velzeboer, who competed with Emons, Teun Boer and Selma Poutsma, was not too disappointed with second place ahead of bronze medallists Republic of Korea.
Republic of Korea took bronze in the Mixed Relay behind the USA and overall leaders the Netherlands. @ISU
"It was a really fast race. I think we did a good job, it's just a bummer we got passed in the last lap. But overall we did our plan," she said.
For full results, entry lists and further information about the 2023/24 ISU World Cup Short Track Speed Skating, please visit webpage here.
Where to watch
Viewers will be able to watch the Saturday and Sunday afternoon (local time) ISU World Cup Short Track Speed Skating sessions via their national broadcaster/channel.
For countries where there are no broadcasters and for the qualification and repechage races, the ISU will offer a live stream on the Skating ISU YouTube Channel. You will find the full list on the Where to watch webpage here.
Subscribe to the ISU YouTube Channel to receive all the latest videos and follow the conversation with #ShortTrackSkating.
.png)