The world’s best short track speed skaters were back on the ice this weekend for the fourth round of the 2011-12 Korean Air ISU World Cup Short Track circuit in Shanghai, China.

Twenty-five countries were in on the action this weekend. The team from China took advantage of skating on home ice, and earned a total of ten medals, doubling the medal count of its closest rivals, Canada (five medals) and Korea (five medals). The United States earned a total of 3 medals, while Great Britain, Italy and Japan each earned two medals. The team from the Netherlands earned one medal.

This weekend the skaters competed over the 500m distance twice, along with the usual other distances. The first Ladies 500m Final was won by Chinese skater Kexin Fan, while the second final was won by Italian Arianna Fontana. Second and third place finishers in each final were: Qiuhong Liu (CHN) and Jessica Smith (USA) in the first 500m Final, and Qiuhong Liu and Kexin Fan in the second 500m Final. Despite not finishing on the podium this weekend, Valcepina maintains her lead in the distance World Cup ranking.

The Ladies 1500m event was won by a Korean skater, with a world record time being set in the the Ladies Final, Ha-Ri Cho (KOR) took the win, giving her the lead in the World Cup distance ranking. Katherine Reutter (USA) was second, while Han Xiao (CHN) was third.

In the Ladies 1000m Final, Fontana took her second win of the weekend, finishing ahead of Jianrou Li of China. Japanese skater Yui Sakai was third, allowing her to take the lead in the World Cup ranking for the distance.

The weekend concluded with the Relay events, with China taking the win in both the ladies’ and men’s events. In the Ladies 3000m Relay Final, second place finished went to the United States while Japan earned a third place finish.

The Korea Air ISU World Cup Short Track circuit takes a break for the holiday season, and resumes in Moscow, Russia, on February 2-4, 2012. In the meantime, the next international ISU sanctioned short track speed skating event is the ISU Short Track Speed Skating European Championships in Mlada Boleslav in the Czech Republic on January 27-29, 2012.