Two medals of Elistratov, the fall of Prosvirnova and reaching the final in the relay races: how Russians perform at the World Cup in short track

Elistratov without victories, but with medals

The coronavirus pandemic has negatively impacted the competitive calendar of many sports, but has particularly affected short track speed skating.

This season, the International Skating Union was able to organize only two international tournaments - the European Championship and the World Championship.

The first of them took place back in January in Gdansk and brought the Russian team four gold medals out of ten possible.

The world championship takes place these days in the Dutch Dordrecht.

It is true that strong teams of South Korea, China and Great Britain could not take part in it, but Canadians and Americans competed with European skaters.

On Friday, the World Championship began with qualifying races, and on Saturday, the first four sets of medals were played at distances of 1500 and 500 meters.

In men, the only athlete who climbed the podium twice was the reigning European champion in the all-around Semyon Elistratov.

One of the favorites Shinki Knegt from the Netherlands could not take part in the final of the 1500 meter race.

In the previous round, he knocked down Kazakhstani Adil Gadiakhmetov, for which he himself received a disqualification, and gave his opponent the opportunity to go further without a fight.

Charles Hamelin from Canada made his way to the final in the same way.

In the decisive race, the 36-year-old athlete did not sit behind the backs of his young rivals, but led them along.

Neither Elistratov nor the Dutchman Yitzhak de Lat, who showed the best time in the semifinals, could keep up with the Canadian.

He unexpectedly won his 14th gold medal - more titles among men only from Victor An.

De Lat won less than one tenth of a second against Elistratov, for whom this bronze became the seventh medal at the world championships.

🔥 2014 Olympic 1500m champion Charles Hamelin 🇨🇦 does it again!

Hamelin just claimed his third World title in the Men's 1500m, after winning the gold in 2014 and 2018 👀 # ShortTrackSkating # WorldShortTrackpic.twitter.com / MswrT0MMit

- ISU Speed ​​Skating (@ISU_Speed) March 6, 2021

Then the short trackers competed for medals in the shortest Olympic distance.

In it, Knegt again became one of the antiheroes, knocking down Amlen and a strong Hungarian Shaolin Shandor Liu in the semifinals.

All three finished the fight, and this gave Elistratov a chance to win the title.

But in the final, Shaoan Liu fought back for his older brother.

A young athlete with Chinese roots stood up a wall in front of Elistratov and won gold, and the Russian had to be content with silver.

It's 🥇 for Shaoang Liu 🇭🇺 in the Men's 500m as he finishes ahead of Semen Elistratov (RSU) and Pietro Sighel 🇮🇹 # ShortTrackSkating # WorldShortTrackpic.twitter.com / lMDVjDmFi8

- ISU Speed ​​Skating (@ISU_Speed) March 6, 2021

In addition to individual distances, short trackers also determine the best in the all-around.

Although Elistratov won two medals, at the end of the first day he still missed Amlen and Shaoan Liu, since they got quite a lot of points for the first places.

But the Russian is only two points behind both of them, and so far he retains a chance to win the main prize of the World Championship.

Fourth place and the fall of Prosvirnova

For the leader of the Russian women's team, Sofia Prosvirnova, the first day of the World Championship was not so successful.

In the 1500-meter race, she had the right to be considered one of the favorites - she has a bronze medal of both the last world championship in this distance, and the recent European championship.

However, the Russian woman got an extremely uncomfortable track, and she spent the entire race in the rear of the group, having practically no chance of joining the fight for medals.

Only on the last loop did she break into fourth place, losing six tenths of a second to the top three, decent for a short track.

The victory was celebrated by the Dutchman Suzanne Schülting, who proved her strength at the continental championship by winning three individual distances and the all-around.

Prosvirnova had a chance to win back in the 500 meters race.

She again reached the final, albeit with great difficulty - she was knocked down by the Canadian Florence Brunel, after which the Russian woman flew into the side of the rink and hit her head.

By the decision of the judges, Prosvirnova was allowed to participate in the final, but she got the track farthest from the turn.

The athlete from St. Petersburg immediately had to desperately fight for a more advantageous position, and this time she herself could not stay on her feet and fell, bruising her hand.

Both finals did not bring Prosvirnova a single medal.

Gold went to Schülting for the second time in a day.

Relay hopes

The first relay races also took place on Saturday.

Due to the lack of participants, men and women began to fight in this discipline immediately from the semifinals.

For the Russian teams, the selection was quite tense.

So, the girls held the third place throughout the race, while they had to get into the first two.

Only on the last loop did Ekaterina Efremenkova lead the team to the final.

The men's semi-final was also not easy.

The Russians either rose to first place or let athletes from Italy and Canada go ahead.

As a result, the national team was saved by the finishing spurt of Denis Hayrapetyan.

On March 7, the relay finals will be held in Dordrecht, and they will be preceded by a drawing of medals in the 1000-meter run and the 3000-meter race, in which the winners of the short track all-around will be determined.