Fontana rules as Choi disqualified

Double delight for Dutch

GANGNEUNG, South Korea, Feb 13, (RTRS): Italy’s Arianna Fontana won a dramatic Olympic women’s 500 metres race on Tuesday after a photo finish with home favourite Choi Minjeong who was later disqualified.

The 27-year-old Fontana, who had won four bronze and one silver medal in previous Olympics but never before topped the podium, finished in 42.569 seconds ahead of Yara van Kerkhof of the Netherlands and Kim Boutin of Canada.

Fontana celebrated victory by wrapping herself in an Italian flag and skating around the ice.

“I knew needed to start first and I knew I had to go fast right away because I knew Choi was going to come,” she told a news conference.

“It was easy to feel her coming because of the crowd, and at the finish line she came up really fast, but I kept pushing and I kept my speed. And when I crossed the finish line in front of her, I knew that my dream had come true.”

Fans packed into the Gangneung Ice Arena roared and waved South Korean flags as Choi edged close to Fontana in the closing stages, their excitement stoked by their compatriot setting an Olympic record of 42.422 in the heats.

But after lengthy deliberation by the judges Choi was disqualified for interference.

Britain’s gold medal hope Elise Christie, world record holder in the 500 metres and the winner of three world titles, slipped over and finished last in the final. She was disqualified in

Netherlands’ Kjeld Nuis strikes a pose after winning gold in the men’s 1,500m speedskating event during the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at the Gangneung Oval in Gangneung on Feb 13.

(AFP)

all three events at the Sochi Olympics.

“I got crashed into in the semi and so got lane four (for the final)...I know it’s short track and you have to prepare for his but it hurts.”

Asked about Christie’s woes, Fontana said: “This is short track and it’s part of the game.

“I’m sure she’ll use this failure — which I don’t really want to call a failure, she was in the final of the Olympics so not everyone gets to the final. I’m sure she’ll use these feelings today to get into the next race and perform better.”

China’s Fan Kexin, world champion in the 500 metres for the past three years, was disqualified in the semifinals.

Dutch speed skaters continued their dominance at the Olympic Games with world champion Kjeld Nuis powering to gold in the men’s 1,500 metres ahead of compatriot Patrick Roest.

South Korea’s Kim Min-seok sparked wild celebrations by taking bronze to open the host nation’s speed skating account at the Games.

The Netherlands has won eight of the 12 speed skating medals at available so far, including all four golds.

Nuis, the first reigning world champion to win Olympic gold in the distance, made a blistering start and finished in one minute 44.01 seconds despite losing speed on the final lap.

“I can’t even describe the feeling, it’s really weird,” he told reporters. “I have to calm down just a little. I’m okay, I’m really happy.”

Paired with Japanese skater Takuro Oda, Nuis came out of the first turn trailing his opponent and falling behind made him push harder in his opening lap.

“It really helped me get in the race and I had really good first crossing thanks to him.”

Denis Yuskov, who holds the world record in the 1,500m, is not at not at the Games as part of the fallout from the Russian doping scandal.

“Last year I was racing (Yuskov) here and we had a really good race,” Nuis said. “I enjoyed racing him and it was nice to beat him last year. Today I had to do it all by myself and it was also a good race. Did I miss him? No.”

Skating in the fourth pair of the evening, 22-year-old Roest set the time to beat, powering across the line in 1 minute 44.86 seconds before facing an anxious wait of more than an hour to see where he would end up.

“It was not fun. It was very nervous for me,” Roest said after his Olympic debut. “It was hard. I sat with my family and I was watching all the races. Some of them came so close, I was so nervous.”

Racing after Nuis, Kim responded to the cheers of the crowd with a huge effort and made a late surge in the last two laps to finish 0.07 seconds behind Roest for third.