ISU World Cup Short Track Moscow (RUS) – 11-13 January 2011
The 2010-11 ISU World Cup Short Track series resumed this weekend in Moscow, Russia. A total of 22 countries were represented for this first event of the World Cup series. The team from Korea led the medal count with a total of nine medals, while Canada and the United States each earned five, with China taking four. The other countries to earn medals were France, Netherlands and Italy with two medals each, and Great Britain with one.
The first medals were handed out on Saturday afternoon for the 1500m event. On the women’s side, it was American skater Katherine Reutter who won the event, finishing ahead of a Korean duo: Ha-Ri Cho was second, while her team-mate Dam Min Kim took third. This win has allowed Reutter to maintain her lead in the World Cup distance classification for the 1500m.
In the 500m events, Canadian Marianne St-Gelais earned the top spot on the podium, finishing ahead of Qiuhong Liu of China, while Martina Valcepina of Italy finished in third place. The win puts St-Gelais in a tied position with Nannan Zhao of China for the lead in the World Cup distance classification in the 500m.
Two 1000m events were on the program for this weekend World Cup stop. In the first of the ladies 1000m event, it was a Korean 1-2 finish: Shin-Young Yang finished first, ahead of her teammate Hwang. Third place finished went to Jiranrou Li of China. In the second 1000m event, Reutter took the win ahead of Hwang (China), and Kim (Korea). With her win, Reutter regains the lead in the World Cup classification for the distance.
As customary, the weekend’s competition concluded with the Relay events. The ladies 3000m Relay Final was won by China, with Canada a close second. Third place went to the Italian team.
The next stop of the ISU World Cup Short Track is next weekend, from February 18-20, 2011 in Dresden, Germany.
