The three-day Speed Skating World Cup in Poland kicked off on November 12, with the Chinese team sending a total of 10 female players and 13 male players to participate in the competition. This is also the first international competition led by former short track speed skating coach Li Yan earlier this month after becoming the head coach of China's speed skating. As a result, in the first day of the competition, Gao Tingyu played well, winning the World Cup for the first time, and Li Yan also ushered in the opening of his own coaching speed skating.
Gao Tingyu
As the bronze medalist in the men's 500m speed skating at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Gao Tingyu has recently shown good competitive form. At the end of September, he set a new national record in the China Cup Speed Skating Elite League held in China, which was also the world's best time in the men's 500 meters this season and the third best result in the history of the event.
Coming to Poland with such a state, Gao Tingyu also showed great confidence in the Group A match on the 12th of Beijing time, and has been ahead of his opponents in the same group from the beginning to the end. In the end, he finished first in 34.26 seconds, a record that also set a new record for the best in the field, which was 34.67 held by Russian Kuliznikov.
The 2021/22 Speed Skating World Cup in Poland won the gold medal with a record of 34.265 seconds
Affected by the epidemic, the international competition of speed skating has been greatly reduced in the past year or so, so the current World Cup matches have also become an important position for players from all over the world to compete for the qualification for the Beijing Winter Olympics. In fact, in the Polish race, the players also generally showed a good competitive state, and the three events of the women's 500 meters, women's 3000 meters and men's 5000 meters decided on the same day, the championship skating results, also broke the field record like Gao Tingyu.
It should be pointed out in particular that although Gao Tingyu has become a "brother" of Chinese speed skating as early as the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, before this competition, his World Cup best result was only two runners-up, so this time to ascend to the championship throne, it is also written as a personal best. Most importantly, its 34.26 seconds also surpassed the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics champion. At that time, Norway's Lorenzen skated 34.41 seconds, while Gao Tingyu's time was 34.65 seconds.
Pyeongchang Winter Olympics speed skating men's 500 meters, the first time to participate in the Winter Olympics youngster Gao Tingyu won a valuable bronze medal with 34.65
In the same day's competition, two Chinese players, Jin Jingzhu and Tian Ruining, also had good performances, ranking 6th and 7th respectively in the women's 500m race.
The International Skating Federation spoke highly of Gao Tingyu's performance, believing that it "caught up with the best players in the world in time". The International Skating Federation also introduced Gao Tingyu in a prominent position on its official website: "On the occasion of the home game of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the 23-year-old from Harbin won the first World Cup of his career in Tomaszów, Poland, kicking off the international season. ”
Obviously, in the context of more than eighty days left before the Beijing Winter Olympics, Gao Tingyu slipped beyond the previous Winter Olympic champion, and his performance in the Winter Olympics is naturally worth looking forward to. Of course, as described by the INTERNATIONAL Skating Federation, the men's 500m is a highly competitive event that does not allow any mistakes. Therefore, it is of course gratifying that Gao Tingyu has come out on top, but the competition in the next competition will undoubtedly remain very fierce.
On November 2, Li Yan served as the head coach and leader of the Chinese speed skating training team with just over 90 days left before the Beijing Winter Olympics, and was appointed to lead China's speed skating to launch the final sprint to the Winter Olympics. According to the plan, Li Yan will lead the team to compete in the four World Cups in Poland, Norway, the United States and Canada in 40 days, on the one hand, to train the team, on the other hand, to compete for as many winter Olympic qualifications as possible. With Gao Tingyu's victory, Li Yan's coaching speed skating can be said to have ushered in a good start.
Li Yan
As a meritorious coach of Short Track Speed Skating in China, Li Yan has created three times to lead China's short track speed skating to participate in the Winter Olympics, and each time there is a magic of gold medals (three golds in Vancouver in 2010, two golds in Sochi in 2014, and one gold in Pyeongchang in 2018). Now, she will lead China's speed skating to participate in the Winter Olympics for the first time, whether she can continue the magic and bring Chinese athletes to the highest podium in the "ice ribbon" is naturally worthy of attention and expectation.