The World Short Track Speed Skating Championships would normally take place in Montreal (Canada) this month, but the ISU has decided to postpone the World Cup to April 8-10 “due to the Ukraine crisis and the corona pandemic”.
The short trackers themselves react incensed. “I am disappointed,” says national coach Pieter Gysel. “Two weeks before the start to reschedule a World Cup. You have to have damn good reasons for that. And they don’t have them.”
His Dutch colleague Jeroen Otter is also very angry. What the ISU ignores is that skaters are very goal-oriented and project-based, he told the website skaken.nl. “It is a misconception that athletes can adapt in the short term. You would expect that there had been consultation.”
The Belgian short trackers Hanne and Stijn Desmet train with the Dutch selection, which skates daily in Heerenveen. But there is ice in the Thialf Arena until March 20. The last twelve training days before the World Cup will have to be diverted elsewhere.
Possibly to Hasselt, where the other selected Belgian short trackers train. “It’s a puzzle as far as training is concerned,” says Gysel. “We still have some work to do for the time being. There may be more clarity at the end of this week.”
According to Gysel and Otter, the World Cup could have been organized on the planned weekend from 18 to 20 March.
“Obviously mistakes have been made and they are being hidden behind that miserable war in Ukraine while at the same time you are flawlessly organizing a junior World Cup in Poland, where 800,000 refugees have poured in,” said Gysel.
