Bērziņš enters the semi-finals in the PK stage at a distance of 1,500 meters

On Thursday in Debrecen, Reinis Bērziņš made it to the World Cup (WC) short track in the semifinals of the third stage at a distance of 1,500 meters.

On Thursday Bērziņš overcame two rounds of the competition. He finished second in the pre-flight, finishing in two minutes and 32.018 seconds. Only South Korean Junem Seo Lee was lost. In the quarter-finals, Bērziņš reached the finish line in the six-skater competition, but was unduly delayed, earning the disqualification of Canadian Stephen Dibua, which meant the appointment of a Latvian in the semi-finals. Lee, who also skated in the quarterfinals, did not finish.

The second Latvian representative Roberts Krūzbergs also finished in the second place in the pre-flight, covering the distance in two minutes and 17,013 seconds. Kruzberg was disqualified in the quarterfinals.

The third entered Latvian short tracker Andijs Vīgants did not go to the start.

In the women’s competition in this distance, Anna Jansone finished in the last place in the competition of six short track runners, spending two minutes and 36,424 seconds in the distance. She finished 53rd in the 63-athlete competition.

The semi-finals of this distance will take place on Saturday.

Jansone also finished last in the 500-meter distance, completing the distance in 46,502 seconds in the pre-flight competition of five athletes. She is ranked 54th among 62 shorts.

Both representatives of Latvia entered the men’s competition after the pre-flight in the next round. Kruzberg finished second after Shaoan Liu from Hungary, spending 41,341 seconds in the distance. In the first round of skating, he finished third behind Liu and Dibua, spending 41.187 seconds in the distance and was among the top four finishers in the third place in the quarterfinals.

Bērziņš finished third in his pre-flight, covering the distance in 41,341 seconds, but in the next round he was the winner of six of the 17 fastest third places. He failed to beat the first round. He covered the distance in 41,189 seconds, finishing fourth in the five-athlete competition. This allowed him to skate for places behind the best twenties.

Vīgants was also entered in this distance, but did not start.

The continuation of the race in 500 meters will be on Friday.

The third round of the World Cup in Hungary will run until Sunday.

The next stage in a week will take place in the Netherlands. In the World Cup stages, athletes are fighting for points in the qualification of the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games.