Sándor Liu Shaolin – 500 m World Cup winner

Day 3

Sándor Liu Shaolin – World Cup winner

500m

The next event was the sprint race of the short track. Only skaters taking the first two places each heat could advance to the final. In the third heat of the Ladies competition Petra Jászapáti couldn’t catch up with the rest of the field, and skated in the fifth position from start to finish.  Andrea Keszler became third after her Korean and Canadian opponent. Both Hungarian ladies finished their competition in this distance.

Petra Jászapáti (HUN)

The 1500m was quite good, not so much the 500m, still I’m satisfied with it anyway. I tried to get to the front from inside at the beginning, but they prevented me, thus I slowed down and got some disadvantage, which I was able to make up for only at the end, but it was too late. More often than not I exclude the crowd during the races, not this time, in the 1500m race their support helped me a lot. Thank everyone!

Andrea Keszler (HUN)

I had a really good start, I managed to grab the third place, then the Russian girl overtook me, and I was waiting in case anyone makes a mistake in front of me, but unfortunately she fell right in front of me and so I lost my speed, and I only had one lap to go make up for the disadvantage. Unfortunately, in 500m you can fall easily, sometimes it helps, but today it didn’t.  

In the Ladies’ 500m final the unwearable Italian World Champion, 25-time European Champion, Arianna Fontana got sandwiched between the Korean Chon Min Jong and Sim Suk Hee.

Among the men three noted names were listed on the start list in the third heat. The Hungarian World Champion Sándor Liu Shaoilin, the Canadian Olympic Champion Charles Hamelin and the Dutch World Champion Sjinkie Knegt. The Canadian took the lead, but the Hungarian boy changed him in an instructive way and preserved this position until the finish. As a surprise Knegt and Hamelin were excluded.

In the last fourth heat Csaba Burján crossed the line third after his Korean and Kazakh rivals.

Csaba Burján (HUN)

It was a very mixed heat, but I’m undoubtedly satisfied with the result. At the beginning two athletes fell in front of me, which made me lag behind, although it wouldn’t have been less difficult to overtake them, so it had its positive aspect. I think it’s a good result, 500m is not really my strength, I have the speed, but I still have to work on the start, so I’m satisfied with a quarter-final. It’s a very good feeling to compete on the home-ice, in the first days I was a bit excited, but I’m beginning to get used to it.

To everyone’s surprise for World record holder J.R.Celski this heat also meant the final stop: he fell in the second heat and couldn’t go on to the semi-final.

Sándor Liu Shaolin with a superb positioning took the lead one and a half laps to go and secured his spot in the final in a convincing way.

Three Asian skater were eager to battle with the Hungarian Sándor Liu Shaoiln in the men’s final. The home favourite short tracker took the lead right after the start. With a wise skating he preserved this position of his, and won the 500m race of the Olympic Qualifier World Cup. The second and the third places were taken by Korean Lim Hyu Jun and Dae Heon.

Sándor Liu Shaolin
It was superb to skate in front of the home crowd: they were cheering loudly. I saw the medals at the press conference and I really liked them, I wished I could clinch one. And I did. I was a bit down after what had happened in the 1500m, but my head was clear and I could put everything together. Everybody was here from my family, they supported me, it was wonderful.

Medal table standings after the first day: