After several days of work, the ice specialists have finished installing the ice rink in the BOK Hall, in Budapest, where the Audi ISU World Cup Short Track is staged next week, with significant things at stake. ISU will announce how many skaters can represent national federations at the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, based on the scores achieved at the four qualifier World Cup tournaments (the Budapest leg – between Sept. 28th and Oct 1st – is the first one in the series this season).
– This is a mobile rink, as normally there is no ice in the BOK Hall, although several world ice events have already been hosted by the Hungarian Skating Federation here,-said László Bartha, the head of the Artificial Ice rink in the City Park and that of the ice installing team. Cooling pipes have been laid on the floor of the hall, the main drainage system being placed at the side of the ice rink, while the refrigerators and the superchargers are placed just by the building. The ice is 7,5 cm deep, its temperature is -7 degrees C, in compliance with the ISU regulations.
The Hungarian national team have already taken possession of the ice rink today, as they say “they have skated it all over”. This first test allows the experts to gain some experience on the quality of the ice, so they can make some alterations if needed.
For this we have the night ahead of us, as from tomorrow on skaters from 43 countries are coming, what’s more the Polish have already arrived today as the early birds being already over their first training.
The Organising Committee at the same time announced that entrance is free on the first two days – Thursday and Friday- of the World Cup.
