SAITAMA: Two-time Olympic determine skating gold medalist Yuzuru Hanyu skipped apply the day gone by forward of Japan’s nationwide championships, casting contemporary doubt on whether or not he’ll be are compatible to shield his identify in Beijing in six weeks time. Hanyu has been out of motion since remaining month after injuring his proper ankle ligaments in a fall all the way through apply, forcing him to pass over all of the Grand Prix season.
The 27-year-old celebrity is scheduled to make his much-anticipated comeback this week on the Eastern nationals – the lads’s brief program takes position on Friday with the loose skate on Sunday. However he pulled out of a scheduled apply and cancelled a media look the day gone by, fuelling fears that he’s now not are compatible. Later within the day, he attended the contest draw on the venue in Saitama, north of Tokyo. He additionally seemed in a brief message launched by means of the Japan Skating Federation, vowing to “give the whole lot” within the match.
Hanyu harm the similar ankle simply months prior to the 2018 Pyeongchang Video games. He withdrew from that season’s Eastern nationals and didn’t compete once more till the Video games. However he made a triumphant comeback in Pyeongchang – turning into the primary guy to clinch back-to-back Olympic determine skating titles in additional than six many years. Hanyu stated after profitable gold that his ankle had by no means absolutely healed. He stated remaining month that he had now not “even reached the beginning line”, weeks after hurting himself in apply for the NHK Trophy. The Beijing Olympics get started on February 4.
Pace skating champ
In some other construction, South Korean pace skating celebrity Shim Suk-hee has been suspended for 2 months over expletive-laden texts about her teammates, leaving her participation on the Beijing Wintry weather Video games striking by means of a thread. Shim, 24, is one in all South Korea’s maximum a hit skaters with 4 Olympics short-track medals, together with relay golds on the 2014 and 2018 Video games.
Her two-month suspension, introduced Tuesday, turned into the newest in a chain of scandals to emerge after the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics in South Korea. A disciplinary committee of the Korea Skating Union concluded Shim led to “social hassle” and “tarnished the respect” of different athletes after investigating texts she despatched to one in all her trainer all the way through the Video games. The one means Shim can now compete on the 2022 Video games, which start on February 4 in Beijing, is to get a court docket injunction in opposition to the suspension or resort a a hit enchantment with the South Korean Olympic committee.
Her texts have been first reported by means of native media in October, sparking an outcry. Within the denigrating messages, Shim had additionally advised tripping her teammate Choi Min-jeong in the event that they competed in the similar race at Pyeongchang. The 2 ended up racing within the girls’s 1,000-metre ultimate and were given tangled within the ultimate stretch, inflicting them to fall and crash into the wall. Shim turned into disqualified and Choi positioned fourth. Shim had apologized for her “immature conduct” when the texts have been published.
A probe turned into introduced on the behest of Choi to determine whether or not Shim deliberately tripped her, however officers concluded that turned into now not the case, bringing up a loss of proof. South Korean game has observed a variety of circumstances of bullying, harassment, abuse and sick self-discipline in contemporary years-especially in brief music pace skating. Considered one of Shim’s coaches-not concerned within the texting case-was jailed this 12 months for greater than a decade for sexually assaulting her over a number of years. And in 2019, a male skater turned into suspended for a month after secretly entering the feminine dorm on the nationwide coaching centre. — AFP
