Russians won three awards at the Short Track World Cup held in Montreal which ended last Sunday. Bronze medalist of the 2018 Olympic Games Semyon Elistratov became the third in the distances of 500 and 1,500 meters, and the leader of the women’s team Sofya Prosvirnova took the second place in the 1,000 meters racing distance. In an interview with the ROC Information Service, Alexey Kravtsov, President of the Russian Skating Union, highlighted the performance of our leading short-trackers.
– I am very glad for Sonia, who on the way to the final surpassed the Olympic champion Susanna Schulting and three-time winner of the Pyeongchang Games, Canadian Kim Buten, said the head of the Russian Skating Union. In the final race Prosvirnova managed to outskate the future absolute world champion Choi Min-Jeong, only losing to another Korean SIM Seok Hee, who won at Sochi Olympic Games as well. With such rivals silver medal is a great success. Besides, this is Prosvirnova’s first personal award at the World Championships! Sonia has proved that she was the undisputed leader of the Russian women’s team. This athlete has a huge potential, which I am sure she will try to realize in the next Olympic cycle.
– Semyon Elistratov also took a step forward, having won two personal medals at the World Championships for the first time.
– Semyon completed the final 500m and 1,500m races very wisely. Watching him was a pleasure. I can say that tactically Elistratov is much stronger now than he was before.
– Were you surprised by his successful performance in the 500m, which is not one of his favorite distances?
– Semyon is aware of his problems and is working on them. In Montreal Elistratov succeeded in many aspects, including the sprint, in which good start is important.
– How can you explain Viktor Ahn’s failure in Canada?
– It is the two-month time-out. Without competitive practice, it is very difficult to stay in good form.
– Men’s and women’s relay teams did not please you either?
– Unfortunately, this time we did not participate in the relay finals. Not trying to defend our athletes I will note that the strong Hungarian team, which won gold in Pyeongchang, was left out of the main race of the men’s tournament as well. That is what the competition in short track is like now.
– The international Short Track season is over, and what about the Russian starts?
– The Championships of Russia combined with the open All-Russian competitions are scheduled to be held from 29 March to 1 April in Saint-Petersburg. The tournament with a serious prize pool will be attended by all our leading athletes, including those who were suspended from the Olympic Games by the IOC.
