Short track skater Kruzbergs reaches 1500m semifinals at opening World Tour event

Latvian short track speed skater Roberts Kruzbergs reached the semifinals of the 1500 metres on Sunday at the first stage of the World Tour in Vancouver, Canada. The World Tour is an international short track series held in several stages over the season. Kruzbergs, a bronze medallist at the Milan-Cortina Olympic Games, is starting the new season after recovering from an injury.

Fall in the 1000m

In the 1000 metres he was eliminated in the quarterfinals. While fighting for a place in the semifinals, a couple of laps from the finish, he fell while running second. Because none of his rivals caused the fall, Kruzbergs was not advanced to the next round. Another Latvian skater, Roberts Berzins, did not get past the first round in this event.

What comes next

Seven World Tour stages are planned this season. The second takes place in a week in the Canadian city of Montreal. The third and fourth will be held in the second half of November in Seoul, the capital of South Korea, and in the Chinese city of Shanghai, while the fifth is set for early December in Beijing.

In mid-January, short track skaters will compete at the European Championships in Dresden, Germany. The sixth and seventh World Tour stages will take place in the first half of February in Gdansk, Poland, and Tilburg, the Netherlands. The season will end in mid-March with the World Championships in Seoul.

Last season

Last season Kruzbergs finished fifth in the 1500m at the first World Tour stage in Montreal, and took fifth place in the 1000m in Gdansk. In mid-February he won bronze in the 1500m at the Milan-Cortina Olympic Games.