Boutin survives drama to take title as World Cup series draws to a close
BySportsbeat
Published 19/11/2017 at 18:03 GMT
Canada's Kim Boutin followed teammate Marianne St-Gelais' lead in clinching the overall 1000m World Cup crown – but the final day of racing in Seoul was not without its drama.
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Image credit: Eurosport
Twenty-four hours after St-Gelais took the 500m crown, Boutin set about doing the same in the longer distance but it went down to a contentious last corner.
There was contact involving Boutin, rival Shim Suk Hee and Great Britain's Elise Christie with the latter earning a penalty while Shim crashed out.
Clear of the drama behind, Korea's Choi Min Jeong won her sixth individual gold this season with Boutin able to come through for the silver and take the overall crown, while Dutch skater Yara van Kerkhof was third.
Boutin said: "I blocked Christie inside and sometimes contact happens. Everyone in there is really strong. We were jostling."
The race for the men's overall 1000m overall crown meanwhile was wide open entering the final with Hungary's Liu Shaolin Sandor eventually settling matters with gold.
The lead shuffled among all four skaters over the last four laps but eventually Liu made the move at the right time to cross first, ahead of Hwang Dae Heon and Canada's Samuel Girard.
"It was a really good race, there was so much action. It's been really exciting from the quarterfinals," said Lieu after winning his second individual gold this season.
"I hope I can get more experience like this (winning gold)."
There was also high drama in the relays with the Netherlands taking advantage of a collision between the race leaders to win their first ladies 3000m relay gold this season.
Korea and China made contact with four laps to go allowing the Dutch and Russian skaters to stream past.
Korea did end up with bronze, meaning they finish the World Cup series as the overall winner.
The male Dutch skaters looked to emulate their female counterparts in the 5000m relay shortly afterwards, taking the lead with 12 laps to go.
But that seemed to provoke a reaction from the Koreans who came back to take gold ahead of the Netherlands with the USA following up their world-record feat last week in Shanghai with bronze.
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