BEIJING (Reuters) -Dutchwoman Suzanne Schulting’s hopes of a clean sweep at the Beijing Games were dashed on day one as she crashed in the mixed team relay semi-finals after setting an Olympic record to ease into the short track 500 metres quarter-finals on Saturday.
The 24-year-old, who was the 1,000m Olympic champion at the Pyeongchang Games four years ago, crashed early in the relay as the Netherlands finished last.
In her first race of the night, though, Schulting was impressive. She skated the 500m in 42.379 seconds to beat the previous Olympic record set in 2018 by South Korea’s Choi Min-jeong by 0.043 seconds.
Defending 500m champion Arianna Fontana, looking to become the only short track skater, female or male, to win nine Olympic medals, also advanced smoothly as the Italian qualified from her heat ahead of China’s Zhang Yuting.
Twice Olympic champion Choi progressed by taking the first of two qualifying spots in her heat, with world record holder Kim Boutin of Canada also through as heat winner.
The quarter-finals, semis and finals of the 500m will be contested on Monday.
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Ken Ferris)
