Samsung ISU World Cup Short Track Kolomna (RUS) - Saturday Finals
The world’s best short track speed skaters were back in action this weekend in Kolomna, Russia for the fourth and final stop of the 2013-2014 Samsung ISU World Cup Short Track Speed Skating series. This event serves as an all-important second of two 2014 Olympic Winter Games Qualifying competition for these skaters.
The first two days of racing saw the skaters competing through the qualifying rounds for all of the individual and relay events. Today the skaters were competing towards the finals of both the 1500m and 500m.
The Ladies’ 1500m final was won by Suk-Hee Shim of Korea, for a second consecutive weekend, allowing her to clinch the World Cup title for the distance. Although seven skaters qualified for the final, only six started; Elise Christie (Great Britain) was the non-starter. Shim led for the bulk of the race, with Valerie Maltais (Canada) and Yang Zhou (China) right behind her throughout. In the end, Maltais finished second while Zhou was third. In terms of the overall distance ranking, the second and third place finishers were Alang Kim (Korea) and Zhou.
The Ladies’ 500m event was once again dominated by Meng Wang (China) who won her third consecutive 500m final this season. Her team-mate Kexin Fan was a very close second, while Suk-Hee Shim finished third, to earn her second podium finish of the day. The win allowed Wang to take back the lead and clinch the overall World Cup title for the distance, with Fan finishing second. Arianna Fontana (Italy) who finished 23rd today, concludes the World Cup series in third place overall.
Samsung ISU World Cup Short Track Speed Skating – Kolomna (RUS) Top 3 Results - Saturday
Ladies 500m Name Nation Time 1 WANG, Meng CHN 43.110 2 FAN, Kexin CHN 43.203 3 SHIM, Suk Hee KOR 43.266
Ladies 1500m Time 1 SHIM, Suk-Hee KOR 2:25.106 2 MALTAIS, Valerie CAN 2:25.190 3 ZHOU, Yang CHN 2:25.416
