At the 2021-2022 ISU Short Track Speed Skating World Cup in Nagoya, Japan, which ended on October 31, Ren Ziwei won the gold medal in the men's 1000 meters event, winning the first individual gold medal in short track speed skating for the Chinese team this season. This roar shouted out Ren Ziwei's depression in the first game.
In the men's 1000m final, only Ren Ziwei of the Chinese team reached the final of Group A. Throughout the race, Ren Ziwei led the way, and Hungary's Liu Shaolin tried to overtake in the inner lane in the final stage of the race and accidentally slid off the track. In the end, Ren Ziwei won the championship in 1 minute 26 seconds 297 seconds. In the first race in Beijing, Ren Ziwei was ruled out of the 1/4 final of the 1000m, and in the 1500m, he was implicated twice because the rest of the group fell and slid heavily.
Among the 1 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze won by the Chinese team in this competition, Ren Ziwei won 1 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze medals in total. On the first final day on October 30, Ren Ziwei won the silver medal in the men's 500m. On the 31st, a total of 5 events were competed for the final, Ren Ziwei had gains in 3 events, in addition to the gold medal in the men's 1000 meters, he worked with his teammates to win the silver medal in the mixed 2000 meters relay and the silver medal in the men's 5000 meters relay. From the 1000m 1/4 final, semi-final, final, to the mixed 2000m relay semifinals, finals, and then to the men's 5000m relay finals, Ren Ziwei has slid for 6 rounds, fully demonstrating his strong physical reserves. Not only that, but in the men's 5,000m relay final, he also cleanly surpassed 2 opponents in the inner road, and he could not see the physical exertion of the first 5 rounds. "I was more proactive in the process of the game, because there were many uncertainties behind, and I still wanted to take the initiative into my own hands." This is a sentence that Ren Ziwei often said in the first race, and the efforts of the Japanese station also gave him the reward he deserved.
Wu Dajing only participated in the men's 500 meters in Japan. Judging from the results of the Beijing station, as the champion of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and the holder of the men's 500m world record, Wu Dajing still maintains the world's top level. Since Beijing was sent off for the final run in the project, Wu Dajing hoped to make up for his regrets in Japan. In this competition, Wu Dajing did not win the top two in the group in the second round of the men's 500 meters, but qualified third in the group with the best results. In the quarter-finals, Wu Dajing once again won the third place in the group, and his results were still the best in the third place of the four groups, but because the first and third groups each had one player who automatically qualified for the opponent's foul, he could only hate to get out.
The Chinese team continued to make efforts in the relay event. In the men's and women's 2000m mixed relay finals, the Chinese team sent the same squad as when they won the championship in the first leg. In the game, the Chinese team was in the third lane, the first stick Fan Kexin quickly grabbed the first position and kept leading, after the halfway point of the schedule, the Hungarian team that had been closely following tried to overtake, at this time Wu Dajing had the same route control problem as the 500-meter race, giving the opponent the opportunity to surpass the inner road. The Chinese team failed to continue the momentum of the first stop and won the silver medal. Judging from the first two rounds of competition, the mixed relay lineup of the Chinese team was constantly adjusted, and although Sun Long and Qu Chunyu did not appear in the final, they contributed to the Chinese team's promotion to the final, which also showed the overall strength of the Chinese team.
In the men's 5000m relay final, the Chinese team lost in the last moment and also won the silver medal. In the Beijing race, the Chinese men's team finished in the final with a third place result, but the referee judged that the Chinese team's lap calculation was wrong through video replay, and cancelled the bronze medal. After moving to Japan, the Chinese team made a comeback, winning the group top spot in both the quarter-finals and the semi-finals. In the final, the Chinese team composed of Li Wenlong, Ren Ziwei, Sun Long and Wu Dajing was always in third place in the first half of the race, and rushed to the leading position with 11 laps left in the game. However, in the final lap of the sprint, although the young player Li Wenlong firmly guarded the inner road, he still failed to withstand the impact of the Canadian famous Charles, and was overtaken by him from the outside road, and the Chinese team won the second place with a slight disadvantage of 0.013 seconds.
Although the Chinese team won only one gold medal in this competition, its overall performance was better than that of Beijing, especially in the individual event, it blossomed at many points and won 4 medals. In addition to Ren Ziwei's 500m silver medal and 1000 gold medal, Sun Long won the men's 1500m bronze medal and veteran Fan Kexin won the bronze medal in the women's 500m, which is also the first women's individual medal won by the Chinese short track speed skating team in two World Cups since the beginning of this season. In the relay event, the Chinese team still has 2 medals in the account, showing its overall strength.
At the same time, the Chinese team also exposed some problems in this race, such as the foul situation is more serious than that of Beijing Station, there were 5 fouls in the 4-day competition, and in the women's 3000-meter relay event, the Chinese team was fouled out in the first round of the competition, and did not win the championship.
In November, the Chinese team will also participate in the Hungarian and Dutch competitions to continue to compete for places at the Beijing Winter Olympics. The Chinese short track speed skating team will also adjust the participation list of the next two World Cups according to the competition and the situation of the players who remain in the training in China.
Reporter Li Xiaojie
Source: China Sports News