SPEED WAS DOMINATED BY COLOMBIA
Demonstrating its local status and encouraged by the strength of Ibague’s public, the Colombian national team swept the first round of the Inline Speed Skating World Championships-Ibagué, Tolima, 2021, by winning the final four events of the 200m Dual TT trial, where the first medals were awarded.
In the junior ladies category, Colombian skater Kollin Castro confirmed her excellent conditions, which have been known for years, by skating an extraordinary time and reaping the harvest of the powerful Colombian team, which is off to a good start in defending its world title. Castro was the only skater in the final to drop 18 seconds, stopping the clock at 18,757 sec. and leaving the Spanish team members, Ruth Arza and Luisa María González in second and third place, by almost half a second.
In the male category, juniors were almost identical, since the setting in the first place continued to be yellow, blue, and red, but with a different factor, this time in the first two podiums, leaving Italy in the third place. Hand in hand, power to power between the locals, John Edward Tascón and Salomón Carballo settled in favor of Tascón for only 67 hundredths of a second, Andrea Cremaschi completed the podium.
In the elite category, among the experienced, Colombia confirmed that what was done in the junior category was no coincidence, great skaters and a very important level of competition that was satisfying to watch. In the ladies’, world champion Geiny Pájaro flew high once more to win by only 56 thousandths of a second over French Mathilde Pédronno. Maria José Moya of Chile completed the podium.
The 200 DUAL TT, the title of men’s senior, was a very exciting trial, with every athlete’s times improved. In the qualifying series, the Colombian duo, made up of Pedro Causil and Steven Villegas, registered fifth and sixth place, respectively, surpassed by Danny Sargoni (Italy), Sivilier Yvan (France), Ricardo Verdugo (Chile), and the Italian Duccio Marsili.
In the finals, the local skaters demonstrated the preparation of the last three months and the harvest in recent years to compete on the track and achieve an extraordinary 1-2 that was celebrated alongside the large audience that accompanied the finals. Villegas stopped the clock at 17,231 and Causil at 17,263, a display of power, technique, and speed. The Chilean Verdugo stayed in third place.