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Having won the first international speed skating medal for Chinese Taipei with silver in the 500m on Wednesday, Huang Yu-Ting seized the first title for her country in the 1000m at the Four Continents Championships. “It’s a dream,” she says. The USA topped the overall medal ranking in the women’s competition with three gold medals, after concluding the event taking the women’s Team Pursuit title.
Survival of the fittest
With the personal bests only two hundredths of a second apart and much faster than those of the other women, the winner of the fourth pair between Huang and Yekaterina Aidova (KAZ) was likely to take gold.
Both women were tired after a long World Cup campaign, but the last race before a break inspired them to give it their all once more.
Aidova had the fastest opener, but Huang used the draft on the first back straight to get ahead at the second split, and finished her race with the fastest final lap of the field in 29.29s.
Huang clocked 1 minute and 14.45 seconds, and Aidova finished 1.03 seconds adrift.
Yu-Ting Huang (TPE) © International Skating Union (ISU)
“I’m happy to be alive,” Aidova said. “It was such a hard race today. When got off the start I felt like all the power went away.
“I was tired after the big competition (in the World Cup). The body is tired and the mind still wants to fight for a medal. I started to feel it after the 500m.
“It’s really nice to be on the podium. The girl from Chinese Taipei, she had a really good race, especially because she said that she was very tired too. She said she needs a rest, and I felt the same.”
Aidova will travel to Spain for a training camp after the Four Continents Championships.
“I feel like I need one week to eat, one week to sleep and one week in bed,” she laughed.
Inspiration for a new generation
Huang couldn’t be happier to have won a historic first international speed skating title for her country. Having switched from inline skating to ice skating, the 33-year-old trains with coach Mitch Whitmore (USA) in Salt Lake City as a member of the ISU Development Transition Program.
“If I can show people that I can win a medal, a lot of (inline) skaters (from Chinese Taipei) will be really interested to switch to ice,” she said.
“If they want to switch to ice, I really want to help them. I have that experience. So I can guide them.
“The program helped the weakest part of me. We do a lot of hard training to make me stronger.”
Canada’s Kali Christ (CAN) came in third in 1:16.50. Having won Thursday’s 1500m, she was happy to collect another medal.
“(It was the) fastest opener I've done this year, that felt really good. (I’ve been) doing a lot of work on that. So to feel it starting to come together is really nice,” she said. Christ went on to win a silver medal with the Canadian women in the Team Pursuit.
Jurak queen of the Four Continents
Canada came close to winning the Team Pursuit, but Team USA nailed it in the second half of the race against their neighbors.
Trailing by a margin of three tenths, Giorgia Birkeland, Dessie Weigel and Jamie Jurak managed to keep their lap times flat towards the end, whereas Kali Christ, Lindsey Kent and Laura Hall slowed a little.
Girogia Birkeland, Jamie Jurak, and Sarah Warren (USA) © International Skating Union (ISU)
Finishing in 3 minutes and 8.18 seconds, USA was 0.50 faster than Canada.
Jurak, who had anchored the US women throughout the race, crowned herself queen of the Four Continents Championships with two gold medals, a silver and a bronze.
“That’s really cool, and I never would have expected that at all,” she said.
“I really didn't have too high of expectations. I just wanted to try to get some personal bests, and do the best that I can. And I guess that was really good.”
Canada left their regular team of Ivanie Blondin, Valérie Maltais and Isabelle Weidemann home for the Four Continent Championships.
“This shows that we've got a giant pool of girls to choose from, so even when anybody retires or anything, Canada will still be able to put up a good team,” Christ commented.
South Korea (Park Ji Woo, Park Chaewon and Kim Minseo) took bronze in 3:30.61.
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About the ISU Four Continents Speed Skating Championships
As of season 2019/20 the Four Continents Championships are organized annually. The format for the Championships shall be decided by the ISU Council. The order of races and competitions for each day will be decided by the ISU in consultation with the organizer and the ISU Speed Skating Technical Committee. The format of the 2021/22 ISU World Four Continents Speed Skating Championships will have a Single Distance format.
