European Short Track Championships 2009

Nicola Rodigari won the men's all-round competition

The 2009 European Short Track Championships took place between January 16 and January 18, 2009 in Turin . A total of four European championship titles were awarded at the Torino Palaghiaccio Tazzoli , one each in the all-around and one in the relay for women and men.

Turin was the first city in which the European Short Track Championships were held for the second time, as they were held here as early as 2005 . The defending champion in the all-around competition was the Latvian Haralds Silovs and the Italian Arianna Fontana . The host was the International Skating Union (ISU).

The European championships were shaped in particular by two athletes from the host country: the Italians Nicola Rodigari and Arianna Fontana each secured the European championship title in the all-around competition. Fontana also won over 500 m and 1000 m, Rodigari won the 500 m run and came on the podium at two further distances. Rodigari was also part of the victorious Italian team in the relay, while Hungary benefited from the disqualification of Italy and won the women's race.

Participating Nations

A total of 123 athletes from 23 countries took part in the European Championships, including 71 men and 52 women.

Participating nations (women / men)
Belgium (0/2) Bosnia and Herzegovina (0/1) Bulgaria (4/4) Germany (5/5) France (2/5)	Great Britain (4/5) Israel (1/2) Italy (5/5) Croatia (0/3) Latvia (1/3)	Lithuania (0/1) Netherlands (5/5) Austria (1/2) Poland (5/5) Romania (1/0)	Russia (5/5) Sweden (1/1) Slovakia (1/4) Slovenia (1/0) Czech Republic (1/2)	Ukraine (2/4) Hungary (5/5) Belarus (2/2)

Time schedule

The schedule was designed in parallel for women and men as follows.

Friday January 16, 2009

• 1500 m: preliminary, semi-finals, final
• Season: forward

Saturday 17th January 2009

• 500 m: preliminary run, quarter-finals, semi-finals, final
• Season: semifinals

Sunday January 18, 2009

• 1000 m: preliminary, semi-finals, final
• 3000 m: Superfinal
• Season: Finale

Results

Women

All-around

• In the columns 1500 m, 500 m, 1000 m and 3000 m it is first indicated which position the athlete achieved, followed by in brackets how many points he received for it.
• Every athlete who has reached a final receives points there for his placement, from 34 points for first place to one point for eighth place. If an athlete does not compete (DNS), is disqualified (DSQ) or does not reach the finish (DNF), he will not receive any points for the all-round competition.

rank	Surname	Points	500 m	1000 m	1500 m	3000 m
1.	Arianna Fontana	83	1. (34)	1. (34)	3. (13)	7. (2)
2.	Kateřina Novotná	76	14. (0)	4. (8)	1. (34)	1. (34)
3.	Stephanie Bouvier	63	12. (0)	2. (21)	2. (21)	2. (21)
4th	Evgenia Radanova	34	2. (21)	9. (0)	16. (0)	4. (8)
5.	Bernadett Heidum	26th	17. (0)	3. (13)	4. (8)	5. (5)
6th	Veronika Windisch	18th	32nd (0)	5. (0)	5. (5)	3. (13)
7th	Erika Huszár	14th	3. (13)	7. (0)	21. (0)	8. (1)
8th.	Martina Valcepina	11	4. (8)	29. (0)	14. (0)	6. (3)
9.	Elise Christie	3	22. (0)	27. (0)	6. (3)	DNS (0)

Evgenia Radanova received five additional points.

Single routes

500 meters

rank	Surname	time
1.	Arianna Fontana	45.885 s
2.	Evgenia Radanova	46.107 s
3.	Erika Huszár	46.140 s
4th	Martina Valcepina	46.237 s

Date: January 17, 2009

1000 meters

rank	Surname	time
1.	Arianna Fontana	1: 34.173 min
2.	Stephanie Bouvier	1: 34.574 min
3.	Bernadett Heidum	1: 34.761 min
4th	Kateřina Novotná	1: 47.904 min

Date: January 18, 2009

1500 meters

rank	Surname	time
1.	Kateřina Novotná	2: 26.503 min
2.	Stephanie Bouvier	2: 26.553 min
3.	Arianna Fontana	2: 26.809 min
4th	Bernadett Heidum	2: 27.300 min
5.	Veronika Windisch	2: 27.497 min
6th	Elise Christie	2: 30.255 min

Date: January 16, 2009

3000 meters superfinal

rank	Surname	time
1.	Kateřina Novotná	5: 28.252 min
2.	Stephanie Bouvier	5: 28.516 min
3.	Veronika Windisch	5: 28.789 min
4th	Evgenia Radanova	5: 29.107 min
5.	Bernadett Heidum	5: 29.203 min
6th	Martina Valcepina	5: 33.115 min
7th	Arianna Fontana	5: 33.477 min
8th.	Erika Huszár	5: 40.533 min

Date: January 18, 2009

Season

rank	Surname	time
1.	Hungary Erika Huszár Rózsa Darázs Bernadett Heidum Andrea Keszler	4: 22.769 min
2.	Germany Aika Klein Susanne Rudolph Christin Priebst Bianca Walter	4: 24.411 min
3.	Netherlands Maaike Vos Annita van Doorn Liesbeth Mau Asam Sanne van Kerkhof	4: 28.943 min
DSQ	Russia Nina Evtejewa Valerija Potjomkina Ekaterina Belova Lija Stepanowa	disqualified
DSQ	Italy Arianna Fontana Cecilia Maffei Lucia Peretti Martina Valcepina	disqualified

Date: January 16-18, 2009

Men

All-around

• In the columns 1500 m, 500 m, 1000 m and 3000 m it is first indicated which position the athlete achieved, followed by in brackets how many points he received for it.
• Every athlete who has reached a final receives points there for his placement, from 34 points for first place to one point for eighth place. If an athlete does not compete (DNS), is disqualified (DSQ) or does not reach the finish (DNF), he will not receive any points for the all-round competition.

rank	Surname	Points	500 m	1000 m	1500 m	3000 m
1.	Nicola Rodigari	76	1. (34)	17. (0)	2. (21)	2. (21)
2.	Haralds Silovs	55	4. (8)	13. (0)	1. (34)	3. (13)
3.	Viktor Knoch	55	2. (21)	3. (13)	3. (13)	4. (8)
4th	Ruslan Sakharov	47	14. (0)	4. (8)	13. (0)	1. (34)
5.	Wim de Deyne	39	10. (0)	1. (34)	8. (0)	5. (5)
6th	Yuri Confortola	35	3. (13)	2. (21)	15. (0)	8. (1)
7th	Niels Kerstholt	15th	17. (0)	5. (5)	4. (8)	7. (2)
8th.	Thibaut Fauconnet	11	5. (5)	10. (0)	6. (3)	6. (3)
9.	Pieter Gysel	5	24. (0)	DNS (0)	5. (5)	DNS (0)
10.	Peter Darazs	3	6. (3)	30. (0)	9. (0)	DNS (0)
11.	Sebastian Praus	2	8. (0)	7. (0)	7. (2)	DNS (0)

Ruslan Sakharov received five additional points.

Single routes

500 meters

rank	Surname	time
1.	Nicola Rodigari	42.254 s
2.	Viktor Knoch	42.286 s
3.	Yuri Confortola	42.668 s
4th	Haralds Silovs	42.729 s
5.	Thibaut Fauconnet	52.747 s
6th	Peter Darazs	1: 40.902 min

Date: January 17th, 2009
46 runners started the 500 meter race, divided into twelve prelims with three or four athletes each. The Russian Semyon Jelistratow was disqualified in the first round, with the result that he does not appear in the overall classification.

After the second race - which was also the shortest distance run - the Italian Nicola Rodigari took the lead in the all-around event. Rodigari prevailed over Viktor Knoch by just under three hundredths of a second on the 500 meters; Another Italian, Yuri Confortola, came third . From a German point of view, the competition did not go well, as Paul Herrmann fell with a good chance of the final in the semifinals and was later disqualified. Herrmann overtook the French Thibaut Fauconnet , who was in second place , who stretched out his arm and brought the German down. The jury later disqualified Herrmann for obstructing the following runners - in the short track, the person passing must ensure that no other athletes are disadvantaged when overtaking. Sebastian Praus was also eliminated in the semi-finals, which none of the Austrians had reached.

In the second round, the Belgian Pieter Gysel (fifth over 1500 meters) had a serious fall, tore his hand on Vyacheslav Kurginjan's skate and had to be operated on in the hospital. For Gysel, the European Championships ended prematurely.

1000 meters

rank	Surname	time
1.	Wim De Deyne	1: 28.231 min
2.	Yuri Confortola	1: 28.405 min
3.	Viktor Knoch	1: 28.558 min
4th	Ruslan Sakharov	1: 28.730 min
5.	Niels Kerstholt	1: 29.064 min

Date: January 18, 2009
44 runners started the 1000 meter race, divided into ten prelims with four or five athletes each. The Russian Semjon Jelistratow and Pieter Gysel from Belgium did not compete anymore, four other athletes were disqualified in the first round, with the result that they did not appear in the overall classification.

The competition won Gysel's compatriot Wim De Deyne , who had previously missed much of the season due to injuries. Yuri Confortola finished second behind De Deyne; thus, as in every race so far, an Italian was on the podium. Again, Sebastian Praus, the last German to fail in the semifinals.

1500 meters

rank	Surname	time
1.	Haralds Silovs	2: 16.109 min
2.	Nicola Rodigari	2: 16.190 min
3.	Viktor Knoch	2: 16.277 min
4th	Niels Kerstholt	2: 16.560 min
5.	Pieter Gysel	2: 17.635 min
6th	Thibaut Fauconnet	2: 21.675 min
7th	Sebastian Praus	3: 17.781 min

Date: January 16, 2009
44 runners started the 1500-meter race, divided into eight prelims with five or six athletes each. The Austrian Matthias Stelzmüller and the Dutch Sjinkie Knegt were disqualified in the first round, with the result that they did not appear in the overall classification.

The opening competition of the European Championship was decided by the Latvian defending champion Haralds Silovs , followed by the Italian Nicola Rodigari and the Hungarian Viktor Knoch . The only German who was able to qualify for an individual final during the entire European Championship was Sebastian Praus . However, the Mainz player lost all chances of a top placement when he crashed in the final and finished seventh and last, more than a minute behind.

3000 meters superfinal

rank	Surname	time
1.	Ruslan Sakharov	5: 03.183 min
2.	Nicola Rodigari	5: 15.449 min
3.	Haralds Silovs	5: 15.698 min
4th	Viktor Knoch	5: 17.117 min
5.	Wim De Deyne	5: 19.145 min
6th	Thibaut Fauconnet	5: 23.899 min
7th	Niels Kerstholt	5: 27.794 min
8th.	Yuri Confortola	5: 34.326 min

Date: January 18, 2009
The eight best athletes from the first three European championship races qualified for the 3000 meter superfinal. Italy was the only nation that could provide two athletes with Nicola Rodigari and Yuri Confortola.

Russian Russlan Sakharov , who won the race by a clear margin in the end, pulled away early . With second place Nicola Rodigari secured the all-around title ahead of Haralds Silovs, who finished one place behind him. As a result, Silovs was tied with Viktor Knoch, but had an advantage due to his victory over the 1500 meter distance, as the best individual result counted in the event of a tie. Sakharov improved to fourth place overall, the best German was Sebastian Praus in eleventh place. In total, all four wins went to four different short trackers from four different countries.

Season

rank	Surname	time
1.	Italy Yuri Confortola Claudio Rinaldi Nicola Rodigari Roberto Serra	6: 56.928 min
2.	Netherlands Daan Breeuwsma Niels Kerstholt Sjinkie Knegt Freek van der Wart	6: 57.314 min
3.	Hungary Peter Darazs Gábor Galambos Viktor Knoch Bence Beres	6: 57.617 min
4th	France Thibaut Fauconnet Jean Charles Mattei Sébastien Lepape Jérémy Masson	7: 05.921 min

Date: January 16-18, 2009
Eleven relays took part in the men's relay competition; these were divided into three quarter-finals with three or four teams each. In the first round, apart from the disqualified Russians, only the far behind Slovaks were eliminated, while the German relay continued in its run despite the last rank. But Germany failed in the semi-finals, where Paul Herrmann's skates were damaged in the course of the competition and the relay only had to contest the last laps with three people.

In the final, the French, the Dutch, the Hungarians and the Italians stood. The latter won the final by just under half a second over the Netherlands. After winning the all-around competition, Nicola Rodigari won his second gold medal at the home European championship.

Medal table

rank	nation	gold	silver	bronze	total
1	Italy	3	-	-	3
2	Hungary	1	-	2	3
3	Netherlands	-	1	1	2
4th	Germany	-	1	-	1
	Latvia	-	1	-	1
	Czech Republic	-	1	-	1
7th	France	-	-	1	1
total		4th	4th	4th	12

Web links

• Results of the European Championship 2009
• Official final report with all results and participants (English; PDF file; 2.67 MB)