ISU World Short Track Speed Skating Team Championships
Budapest (HUN) 17-18 March 2007
Skaters of 11 nations gathered for the last major Short Track
event of the season at the Practice ice rink in Budapest to
compete for Team Championships titles. In the Ladies’
event Korea (Chun-Sa Byun, Ji-Soo Jeon, Sun-Yu Jin, Eun-Ju
Jung, Min-Jung Kim) defended its world title in an impressive
way, making twice as many points as silver medalist China
(56 points vs. 28). Canada took third place by 23 points.
In the Men’s event Canada (Charles Hamelin, Olivier
Jean, Jean-Francois Monette, Marc-Andre Monette, Francois-Louis
Tremblay) managed to beat title-defender Korea by 10 points
and Italy by 17 points, who came second and third, respectively.
In the Ladies’ event Korea and China (Tianyu Fu, Xiao
Xue Meng, Xiaolei Cheng, Mile Zhu and Yang Zhou) qualified
for the finals with little difficulty, while Canada (Nita
Avrith, Anne Maltais, Amanda Overland, Annik Plamondon, Kalyna
Roberge) and the USA (Allison Baver, Kimberly Derrick, Hyo-Jung
Kim, Tina Koenig, Katherine Reutter) got through the repechage
round. In the Men’s event Canada and Korea ( Hyun-Soo
Ahn, Hyun-Kon Kim, Byeung-Jung Kim, Si-Bak Sung, Kyung-Taek
Song ) qualified directly with Italy and the USA (Ryan Bedford,
Alex Izikowsky, Travis Jayner, Anthony Lobello, Jordan Malone)
making it to the finals through repechage.
Korean ladies showed their finest in the 1000 m finals, taking
all the first places, and making a significant lead of 11
points over China and Canada, both with 9 points at this stage.
Korean domination continued in the 500 m finals, with probably
the most exciting finish in the third race, where Anne Maltais
of Canada kept up the lead till the last lap when 2007 world
silver medalist Jung of Korea made an amazing overtake and
came in first while Cheng of China also managed to pass Maltais
right before the finish line. Although Roberge of Canada came
in first at the last 500m race, she was disqualified for impeding,
thus allowing a first place for the Chinese. Before the 3000m
event Korea had a highly reassuring lead of 16 points over
China, and 22 points over Canada. In the 3000m final following
some tactical struggle Jung and Kim of Korea opened a gap
with 4 laps to go and made sure they take the first and second
place. This meant that Korea deprived its rivals of even mathematical
chance for the title already before the relay. Then in the
ladies’ final event, even though Canada, China and Korea
alternated the lead all over, Korea managed to come in first
with a pass in the very last lap, confirming their strength
again.
More balanced competition shaped up in the men’s event:
Korea had a lead of just 1 point over Canada, and 3 points
over Italy after the 1000 m races. Then Canadian men demonstrated
their talent in the 500m distance, winning all 4 races and
taking a lead of 9 points over Korea and 15 points over Italy.
This brought a promise for a decisive event in the 3000m,
where after some tactical battle newly-crowned World Champion
Ahn and his team-mate Song of Korea broke away from the rest
with 7 laps to go, only to bump in each other in the very
next lap. This allowed Canadian Hamelin to grab the victory
and practically cost Korea the chance to defend their title.
Canada could face the relay with a lead of 14 points over
Koreans, already making them World Team Champions of 2007.
Despite Korea taking the 10 points for winning this event,
it was enough for them just to secure their overall second
position over Italy (Marco Bertoldi, Fabio Carta, Yuri Confortola,
Nicola Rodigari, Roberto Serra) which finished third.
ISU World Short Track Speed Skating Team Championships
- Results
Ladies
Points
1 Korea 56
2 China 28
3 Canada 23
4 USA 13
Men
Points
1 Canada 43
2 Korea 33
3 Italy 26
4 USA 18
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