ISU Junior World Cup Speed Skating – 18th January 2016
Great emotions in the Italian Junior World Cup in long track speed skating, held Saturday 16th and Sunday 17 th January 2016, with the participation of over 130 athletes from 19 European countries.
The competition took place at the Ice Rink Piné in Baselga di Piné (Trentino, Italy), where have been held others important events such as World and European Championships, World Cup and the Winter Universiade Trentino 2013. ISU Junior World Cup Speed Skating saw a record participation both as athletes (80 males and 50 females) such as participating countries, that demonstrates the importance of the competition (valid for qualifying for the Youth Olympic Games in Lillehammer planned from the 12th to the 21st of February) and how valuable the Organizing Committee, led by President Enrico Colombini and coordinators Luca De Carli and Nicola Condini, is. The Organizing Committee could count on the proven contribution of more than 50 local volunteers.
Great satisfaction for the Italian team, led by Giorgio Baroni and Flavio Sighel, with the third position of Francesco Tescari on the 500 m men race, with the time to 36.50, only 16 hundredths of a second far from the winning time realized by the Estonian Liiv Marten. Second place for the Russian Artem Zolotarev.
On the female race of 500 m the Russian Daria Kachanova ended first (40.00 her time), ahead of the Dutch Dione Voskamp and the Korean Kim Min – Jo.
Good test also for the Italian female team on the women 1,500 meters, which was won by the Korean Ji – Woo Park (2:05:57), ahead of the Polish Karolina Bosiek and the Dutch Loes Adegeest. The Italian athletes arrived very closed of the podium with the fifth time of Chiara Cristelli (CP Pinè) and sixth time of Gloria Malfatti.
In the next race of the 1,500 meters men the Korean Woog – Ki Park (1.52.98) finished first, preceding the Dutchman Marcel Bosker and the Russian Viktor Mushtakov.
The Italian women team (Bonazza, Grisenti, Malfatti) reached a good third position in the ladies Team Pursuit, at only five seconds from the winning time realized by the Korea team, second place for the Dutch team. Korea also finished first in the Team Pursuit men ahead of Belarus.
The greatest satisfaction for the Italian team came on the men 1,000 m with the Francesco Tescari’s victory with a time of 1:12:55, preceding of 24 hundredths of a second the Kazakh Stanislav Palkin and of 43 hundredths of a second the Belarusian Ignat Golovatsyuk .
In the 500 meters female, race won by the Russian Daria Kachanova (1:20:21) ahead of the two Polish Kaja Ziomek and Karolina Bosiek, the Italian team run a good performance.
Korean female success on 3,000 meters with Ji – Woo Park (4:22:40), who repeated the success obtained in the 1,500 meters, preceding the Czech Natálie Kerschbaummayr and the Dutch Femke Markus. The men 3,000 meters was instead dominated by the Dutchman Marcel Bosker (second place in the 1,500 meters) before the Koreano Ki – Woong Park (winner of the 1,500 meters) for only 31 hundredths of a second and the Norwegian Allan Dahl Johansson.
Emotions were entrusted to the final race in Mass – start line with all the skaters on the ice at the same time. The women competition was engaging and hard fought: at the end of the 10 laps the Korean Cho – Won Park was beating only at the sprint the Italian Gloria Malfatti, who obtained the silver medal. Bronze medal for the Dutch Isabelle Van Elst and fourth place for the other Italian athlete Noemi Bonazza. In the male race the Dutchman Marcel Bosker finished first ahead the Korean Hae – Yeong Lee and the Belarusian Igna Golovatsyuk.
The young Italian team closed the third leg of the Junior World Cup with a great haul of four medals (one gold, one silver and two bronze), a good result before the finals of the World Cup scheduled for March 5 and 6 in Changchun in China.
Ice Rink Piné will also host from the 26th to the 28th of February the Masters’ International Sprint Games, a world championship sprints (500 and 1,000 meters) for the categories over 35. Moreover from the 3rd to 6th of March will take place the third edition of the World University Speed Skating Championships (Fisu), which is hosted in Italy for the first time after the Trentino Universiade 2013.