Asian qualifying for ISU World Cup Speed Skating

Asian qualification tournament for the Essent ISU World Allround Speed Skating Championships 2013 will be held on Saturday in Changchun City of Jilin province. Yu Jing, the women's 500meter world record holder, will lead the Chinese team to participate in the tournament. According to Wang Feng, the staff of the Winter Sports Management Center from the Chinese General Administration of Sport, the two-day tournament will be held with ISU Junior World Cup Speed Skating 2012/13 (Asian regional event) and the Asian Single Distances Speed Skating Competition 2013. A total of 65 athletes from six countries will take part in 500m, 1000m, 1500m, 3000m, 5000m, and mass start competitions. The highest level of athletes, as Seung-Hoon Lee, Cheol-Min Kim, Bo-Reum Kim from South Korea, Masako Hozumi, Miho Takagi, Eriko Ishino from Japan as well as Dmitrij Babenko from Kazakhstan will line up for the competition. Wang said that China will send a total of 35 athletes including Yu Jing, Zhang Hong, Sun Longjiang for the tournament, hoping to win at least five berths for the Essent ISU World Allround Speed Skating Championships 2013, which will kick off in Sweden next year. Source:Xinhua