The ISU World Cup Short Track series resumed this weekend in Dresden, Germany for the sixth event in the series. A total of 24 countries were represented at this last stage of the series. The team from Canada led the medal count with a total of 8 medals, with the team from Korea a close second with 7. China took 5, while the United States earned 4. The other countries to earn medals were France and Italy with 2 medals each, and Germany and Japan with one medal.
The first medals were handed out on Saturday afternoon with the 1500m event. On the women’s side, it was Korean skater Shin-Young Yang who won the event, finishing ahead of Marie-Eve Drolet of Canada, while Hyunsun Hwang of Korea was third.
Katherine Reutter secured her World Cup classification title win at this distance by finishing fifth this weekend in the 1500m event.
Two 500m events were contested at this World Cup stage, and it was a perfect weekend for Marianne St-Gelais at this distance. In the first of the 500m events in the ladies competition, the podium finish was identical to last weekend in Moscow. Canadian Marianne St-Gelais finished first, with Qiuhong Liu of China second, and Italian skater Martina Valcepina in third place. In the second event, while St-Gelais took the win, Liu and Valcepina swapped spots on the podium: the Italian skater taking second, with Liu taking third. The two wins this weekend allowed St-Gelais to take the World Cup distance classification title.
In the women’s 1000m event, the win went to Shin-Young Yang of Korea. Japanese skater Yui Sakai finished second, while Drolet was third. Katherine Reutter of the United States clinched the title in the ladies competition.
As customary, this weekend’s competition concluded with the Relay events. The ladies’ 3000m Relay Final was tightly contested, with all four teams finishing within half a second. The team from the United States took the win, ahead of Korea (second) and Canada (third).
China clinched the World Cup distance classification ladies’ title.
While the majority of these skaters will reconvene on March 11-13 in Sheffield, Great Britain, for the 2011 ISU World Short Track Championships, the junior-aged skaters will head to Courmayeur, Italy to compete in the ISU World Junior Championships, February 25-27, 2011.
