Skating: Essamambo and Gentselev taking part in Speed Skating World Cup

The Asian Junior World Speed Skating Cup that was supposed to take place in Astana on January 19 has been officially cancelled, Vesti.kz reports. The press-service of Alau Ice Palace said that the tournament had to cancelled because most of the best Asian junior speed skaters could not take part in the competition. Only Kazakhstan as a host country set force a full squad that included 6 female and 9 male speed-skaters. Chinese, Korean and Japanese national teams refused to take part in the World Cup. “Unfortunately, we have to cancel this event based on the regulation #107 (in connection with insufficient number of participants’ applications),” Fredi Schmid, general director of the International Skating Union (ISU), wrote in the official letter to the organizers of Astana World Cup. It was expected that the best Asian speed skaters would come to the tournament to qualify for the final stage of the World Cup that was to be held on February 16-17 in Italy. Kazakhstan’s speed skaters have lost a good chance to gain more spots for the finals, because at present only 2 athletes instead of 16 will try to qualify for the final stage via the European tournament that is held on January 12-13 in Italy’s city of Baselga di Pine. The Kazakhstan speed skaters who will participate in the Italian tournament are Darsil Essamambo and Yury Gentselev. Darsil performed decently at the Junior World Cup: he gained 100 points in Minsk by winning two 500-meter races in a row. He gained 60 points when he came fourth at the same distance in Inzell, Germany. According to experts, he has good chances to make it into the final stage of the tournament. Gentselev has got more limited chances to qualify for the finals; however, this junior male sprinter has got some experience of participation in regional tournaments and is considered a promising athlete. European qualification tournament will be held on January 12-13 in Italy’s city of Baselga di Piné. The final competition will be held in Italy on February 16-17.