2016 World Freestyle Skating Championship: Speed Slalom (Day 1)

Speed Slalom

There’s a wide variety of skates on the Speed Slalom competition, when you have a look at the skaters’ feet: from usual 4-wheeled short rockered frames on rigid carbon boots, to increasing tendency to 3x110mm frames, especially for the world leaders of the discipline. A few semi-low cut carbon boots can also be spotted on the Asian side; explosivity at the start being just as essential in this discipline as evenness in the slaloming of cones.

The qualifications are in Free Start, without reaction time, and the final phases are match races with random starts.

Speed Slalom – Junior Women’s Category

Chinese Taipei dominates the qualification phases with 3 skaters: Lo Pei Yu (4.697 sec), Chen Pei Yi (4.74), and Su Yu Jou (4.746).

The Small Final gathers Chinese Taipei Su Yu Jou and French Lily Granjon. The latter (2016 European Champion, WSSA Recordwoman with a time of 4.4) was beaten during the last decisive run, leaving the bronze to Chinese Taipei.

As for the Final, it was a full-Chinese Taipei round, with a match between Lo Pei Yu and Chen Pei Yi. Here too, the title was played on a 3rd decisive run. Lo Pei Yu becomes the new Junior World Champion with an explosive time of 5.129, in front of Chen Pei Yi.

Speed Slalom – Junior Men’s Category

Austrian Pedram Ranjbar Vakili does the best qualification time of all categories with a time of 4.233 sec! Behind him, Xiao Bing Sheng (Chinese Taipei) and Zhang Hao (China) complete the provisory Top-3, all three under 4.4. The Junior category has nothing to be ashamed of compared to the seniors’ feats.

All skaters were under 5 (incl. reaction time) for the final phases. No penalty was given during those phases, which is almost a first in this category!

In Small Final, it took three runs to the competitors to decide who would get the 3rd place: Chinese Zhang Hao wins the bronze with a last run in 4.805 in front of Iranian Shojaei Barjouei Ali.

In Final, the first run witnessed 3 false starts, 2 for Chinese Taipei and 1 for Austria, and is finally won by the Austrian. The second run also goes to the Austrian, faster, with a time of 4.808 against 4.858 for Xiao Bing Sheng.
The results of the Junior Men’s Top-8 remained unchanged between the qualifications and the final phases.

Speed Slalom – Senior Women

Wang Jia Wei (Chinese Taipei) dominates the Senior Women’s category with a time of 4.684 sec, in front of Italian Cristina Rotunno (4.71) and Chinese Lu Qianqian (4.736).

In Small Final, Italian Cristina Rotunno with the bronze after 3 runs against Chinese Taipei Wang Jia Wei.
In Final, another Italian, Barbara Bossi (4th of qualifications) met Chinese Lu Qianqian. With two solid victories, the Italian wins the gold.

Speed Slalom – Senior Men

Italien Brivio Savio gets the best qualification time in 4.347 sec, closely followed by Chinese Pan Yusuo (4.363) and Iranien Mohammadi Sasan Sajjad (4.364. Amongst the 57 registered skaters, only 16 will make it through to the final phases.

In Small Final, there’s a match between China (Ye Haoqin) and Chinese Taipei (Wu Dong Yan), that goes in favor of Chinese Taipei.

Last but not least, in Final, the 2015 title holder, Italian Savio Brivio, meets Chinese Pan Yusuo. The Chinese creates a stir and wins the title in two runs in front of the Italian, who made too many penalties.

Useful Links

Visit our page of the 2016 World Championship of Freestyle Skating in Bankok

Full Speed Slalom Results at the 2016 WFSC in Bankok, Thailand