The world’s best short track speed skaters were back in action this weekend in Seoul, Korea, for the second stop of the 2013-2014 Samsung ISU World Cup Short Track Speed Skating series. Last weekend was an exciting start to the season, with some great racing; more of the same is expected this weekend, with the Korean athletes skating on home ice.
After two full days of racing that saw the skaters compete through the rounds of prepreliminaries all the way to the heats for each of the distances, today was the time to move into the finals of the 1500m and 500m for the ladies
The Ladies’ 1500m was won by Alang Kim of Korea, with her teammate Suk Hee Shim right behind her; these skaters swapped podium positions from last weekend’s racing. The third place finisher was Valerie Maltais of Canada. The fans were close to being delighted by an all-Korean podium finish. However, Seung-Hi Park, who crossed the line in third place, received a penalty. The win by Kim puts her at the top of the World Cup distance classification, tied with her teammate Shim. In third place overall in the standings is Jorien Ter Mors (Netherlands), who won the B Final.
In the Ladies’ 500m event, defending World Cup distance champion and Ladies World Champion Meng Wang of China, was back to winning ways. Wang took the lead in the second lap to finish first in the 500m final, with her teammate Kexin Fan a close second.
Arianna Fontana (Italy) was third. Fan maintains her lead in the World Cup ranking for the distance.
Racing resumes tomorrow with the 1000m and Relay events for the ladies
Samsung ISU World Cup Short Track Speed Skating – Seoul (KOR)
