Olympic Champion, World Record-holder to Miss World Cup Fourth LegOlympic champion Annie Perreault of Canada and Bulgarian world record-holder Evgenia Radanova will not take part in the fourth leg of the International Skating Union (ISU) Short Track World Cup to be opened in Changchun on December 8, according to the organizers."Perreault and Radanova will not be competing here," Zhu Chengyi, deputy director of the National Winter Sport Management Center under the Chinese Sports General Administration, told a press conference on Thursday, December 7. Perreault captured the women's 500 meters title at the 1998 Nagano Olympics and Radanova set a world record of 43.873 seconds in the same event at the Winter Goodwill Games in February. The three-day tournament, which is held in Changchun, northeast China, for the second consecutive year, have attracted 90 athletes from 17 countries and regions, among which are Olympic champions Kim Dong-Sung, Takafumi Nishitan, from South Korea and Japan, respectively. Other big names include American Apolo Ohno, who have won seven World Cup races in the first three legs this season, and South Korea's world champion Min Roung. The host skaters, spearheaded by reigning world champions Li Jiajun and Yang Yang (A), will also battle for the 12 golds at stake. |
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