By Julien Pretot
BEIJING (Reuters) -Italy’s Arianna Fontana outwitted Suzanne Schulting to claim a record-extending 10th Olympic medal in short track speed skating when she retained her title in the 500 metres event at the Beijing Winter Games on Monday.
Fontana, the most decorated short tracker in either the women’s or men’s events, now has two more medals than American Apolo Ohno and Russian Viktor Ahn.
The ‘Angelo Biondo’ (Blonde Angel) overtook second-placed Dutch star Schulting on the final lap and screamed with joy as she crossed the line, breaking up the near silence at the Capital Indoor Stadium.
The 24-year-old Schulting, who was hoping for a clean sweep at this Games after winning all the events at last year’s COVID-hit world championships, started strongly. But Fontana, the event’s world number one, picked her moment perfectly for a last-gasp effort.
Schulting, who won the 1,000 metres at the Pyeongchang Olympics in 2018, got off to a rough start in Beijing after her crash meant the Netherlands were knocked out early in the mixed team relay event last Saturday, in which Fontana took silver with the Azzurri.
Canadian Kim Boutin, the world record holder, took the 500 metres bronze medal – matching the bronze she won at the Pyeongchang Olympics in 2018.
China’s Fan Kexin, the world number five in the event, was knocked out in the quarter-finals, as well as South Korea’s Choi Min-jeong, a two-time Olympic champion who is more at ease on longer distances.
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Hugh Lawson)
