Hwang Dae-heon and Lin Xiaojun finally face off

Hwang Dae-heon and Lin Xiaojun finally face off... Short Track World Cup opens

Starting on the 21st in Montreal, Hwang Dae-heon and Lin Xiaojun, who joined forces at the Pyeongchang Olympics in the first round of the 2023-2024 ISU World Cup, will compete for the first time since 2019.

Hwang Dae-heon (24, Gangwon Provincial Office) and Lin Xiaojun (27, Korean name Lim Hyo-jun), who ran together at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, will finally meet on the silver plate.

Daeheon Hwang and Xiaojun Lin are scheduled to compare their skills by participating in the first round of the 2023-2024 International Skating Union (ISU) Short Track World Cup held in Montreal, Canada starting on the 21st (Korean time).

Hwang Dae-heon is Korea's ace, and Lin Xiaojun is China's star, and his name was included in this tournament's entries. 토토사이트

The two, who were close seniors and juniors on the national team, crossed the river of no return in 2019.

Lin Xiaojun was indicted for an unpleasant incident with Hwang Dae-heon and suffered hardships, including a one-year suspension from the Korea Skating Federation.

After a legal battle, he was acquitted on appeal and his honor was restored, but he left Korea and naturalized in China.

Afterwards, Hwang Dae-heon won the Taegeuk symbol and continued to win, but Lin Xiaojun was unable to participate in international competitions.

This was because of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Olympic Charter, which states, ‘For an athlete to change their nationality and participate in the Olympics, three years must elapse after the international competition in which they competed with their previous nationality.’

The Chinese short track team selected athletes who could participate in the Olympics in order to focus on the Beijing Olympics, and Lin Xiaojun trained only with his team and the second team of the Chinese national team.

After a long wait, Lin Xiaojun returned to international competition through the 2022-2023 season.

He also participated in the World Championships held in Seoul in March of this year.

On the other hand, Hwang Dae-heon gave up participating in the 2022-2023 national team selection competition, saying he would take a break after finishing the Beijing Winter Olympics last year, and their meeting was mixed.

The match between the two in the international competition came about when Hwang Dae-heon won the Taegeuk symbol after many twists and turns in the national team selection match last April.

The fierce rivalry between the two, who boasted the world's best skills, is the biggest concern on the short track stage this season.

In addition to Hwang Dae-heon and Lin Xiaojun, there are other players that attract attention.

Brother players Shandor Liu and Saoang Liu, who played prominent roles in the Hungarian national team, will compete in Chinese uniforms in this tournament.

The brothers, who won gold medals at the Pyeongchang and Beijing Olympics, are mixed-race athletes with Chinese fathers and changed their uniforms last year in pursuit of naturalization as Chinese.

Since the ISU-organized competition only takes place one year after the international competition in which the previous nationality participated, the two athletes were able to return to the silver medal without a long gap.

The members of the Korean men's national team are also formidable.

Park Ji-won (Seoul City Hall), winner of last year's World Championships, is alive and well, and 'bad boy' Kim Geon-woo (Sports Toto), who wore the Taegeuk symbol again after 2019, reflected on his past misdeeds and focused only on training.

The women's national team is expected to weaken due to the absence of 'ace' Choi Min-jeong (Seongnam City Hall), but Kim Gil-li (Seongnam City Hall), who is considered the next-generation ace, and veterans Shim Seok-hee (Seoul City Hall) and Park Ji-won (Jeonbuk Provincial Office) are expected to make great progress.

Choi Min-jung spent her year in intensive personal training in preparation for the 2026 Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics and she did not compete in the national team trials.

Choi Min-jung, who returned her Taegeuk mark, replaced all of her equipment, including her skating boots and blades, and is focusing on honing new skills.

The men's and women's short track teams left for Canada on the 15th and are undergoing local adaptation training.

The national team will participate in the first World Cup competition from the 23rd, then the second World Cup competition to be held at the same location from the 27th to the 29th, and the ISU Four Continents Championships to be held in Laval, Quebec, Canada from November 3rd to 5th before returning home. I plan to do it.

The new season World Cup will be held over a total of six times until the tournament held in Gdansk, Poland in February next year.

Among these, the 4th competition is attracting attention as it will be held from December 15th to 17th at the Mok-dong indoor ice rink in Yangcheon-gu, Seoul.