Although it officially entered the Winter Olympics in 2003, the team chase event as a group event of the speed skating event of the Winter Olympics, and because of the special rules of the two teams starting in reverse from different starting points, the wonderful scene of each team of 3 people exchanging leading skates and cooperating with each other has attracted much attention. The upcoming Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, the group chase project in the "Ice Ribbon", will also be the focus of attention of all parties. Through the outstanding performance of the four World Cups, the Chinese men's and women's selection teams have also successfully qualified for the men's and women's team chase events, and are looking forward to making greater breakthroughs at the doorstep and sliding farther away.
Hao Jiachen, Li Dan and Liu Jing (front) at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. Photo/ Lu Lin
Four years ago in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, the Chinese women's team has appeared in the team chase field, competing for five or six places in the competition, facing the European powerhouse Germany team, the Chinese team composed of Hao Jiachen, Li Dan, Liu Jing slid out of 3 minutes 00 seconds 01, and finally won the fifth place, after the game, the girls excitedly said: "This is the best result achieved by the Chinese team in the winter Olympic team chase project, we achieved a breakthrough!" "In the Beijing Winter Olympics cycle, the breakthrough footsteps of Chinese girls continue - even if the lineup has been "greatly changed", four years ago, only Han Mei retained the team, but the newly added Li Qishi, Zhang Lina, Adak's personal strength is stronger, and the performance of the Chinese selection team is more outstanding and stable. Speed Skating World Cup in the United States, the Chinese selection team skated a time of 2 minutes 58 seconds 310 in Group B, an improvement of nearly 2 seconds compared to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, and then canada, it improved the performance to 2 minutes 58 seconds 428 seconds, ranking third in Group A, and the first time in the season to reach the podium!
With this result, the Chinese women's selection team successfully obtained the right to participate in the Winter Olympic Games. They are also making great efforts in group chase, and after the regular training of the middle distance group, the intensive training of group chase is "routine operation". Liang Linhua, coach of the middle distance group, said that at present, the whole team is continuing to consolidate the foundation and make up for the shortcomings, hoping that there will be excellent performances in the Beijing Winter Olympics.
In this season's World Cup in Norway, the Chinese team composed of Wang Haotian, Lian Ziwen and Ning Zhongyan won the men's sprint team chase championship. Short-distance group chases, while not a Winter Olympics event, have made history.
Compared with the Chinese women's team that has already participated in the Winter Olympic Games, the Chinese men's selection team is the first time that the team chases the right to participate in the Winter Olympic Games. In the words of Wang Xiuli, coach of the men's team's mid-range group, "It is already a huge breakthrough to get on the Olympic field!" "But just competing is clearly not the only goal of the Chinese men's selection team as the host. Led by Ning Zhongyan, the Chinese team composed of Kahanbai and Muhammad has ranked 6th in this season's World Cup, and has great hopes of impacting the traditional strong team in this sub-event. The three teams that have performed best this season are the United States, Norway and Italy, but the Gap between the Chinese Selection Team's World Cup best and their best results this season is less than 4 seconds at most.
Recently, the Chinese selection team has also strengthened the training of the group chase project in Beijing, and the time for the group chase on the ice training team can even account for half of the middle distance group. Wang Xiuli pointed out that the focus of the group chase is that the individual strength of the three athletes on the field should be strong, and it is necessary to truly achieve "three brains into one brain", only in this way can the strongest combat effectiveness of the team be exerted. The good thing is that with the good wind tunnel training conditions of the "Erqi Factory Training Base" in Beijing, the Chinese men's and women's selection teams simulate the competition environment, change the position and formation under strong wind speed, and have been more skilled, and through the high-tech timing and scoring analysis system and catapult device, the overall strength of the team and the personal level of each athlete have also been steadily improved. "Training through team chase can definitely lead to the improvement of individual strength of athletes, and the improvement of individual ability will also benefit the team, which is complementary." Wang Xiuli said.
Of course, while affirming their own progress, we can not ignore the opponent, in addition to the most outstanding performance of the season of the United States, Norway, Italy, the Netherlands in the just concluded European speed skating championships skating 3 minutes 37.975 good results, greatly improved their world cup in Poland 3 minutes 44.567 times to win the championship, also better than the Chinese selection team of 3 minutes 38 seconds 930 this season's best time. Although the Performance of the Dutch team in individual events in this Olympic cycle has declined, the overall strength is still unmatched, and the Chinese selection team wants to go further on the Olympic field, and the Dutch team is an opponent that needs to be paid attention to.