A great achievement for the Israeli skater in the short track, Vladislav Biknov, who reached the semi-finals of the Winter Olympics in Beijing 1,500 meters today (Wednesday), while setting a new personal record.
The 32-year-old Bikanov, for whom this is the third time at the Winter Olympics, jumped to the first qualifying round with five tough rivals such as Canadian Pascal Dion, a bronze medalist in the 2018 Apostles competition, and Shaolin Sandor Liu of Hungary, who already has a bronze medal in the Apostles.
To advance to the next stage, the Israeli knew he had to finish the allotment between the first three places, or between the three fastest times among those who finished in fourth place and he set a time of 2: 09.932 minutes, which is a new personal record for him at this distance, after the previous 2 : 10.963 minutes from 2016.
Bikanov (13) competes today in Beijing, Photo: Reuters
And yet, that was only enough for him to finish fourth in the end, where a new Olympic record of 2: 09.213 minutes was also set by Sandor Liu.
After waiting for the end of the rest of the allotments, he received the news that he had advanced to the next stage, which will take place today at 14:29.
At the previous Olympics in Pyongyang four years ago, Bikanov was disqualified at the same end and did not advance to the next stage, after the referees ruled that he pushed a Canadian skater, while in Sochi 2014 he advanced to the semifinals, where he was ranked 25th overall.
Later this week, Bikanov will also participate in the 500-meter qualifiers.
During his long career, Bicknow reached his peak at the 2015 and 2018 European Championships where he won the gold medal in the non-Olympic 3,000 meters, with two more silver medals and 3 bronze medals in the 1,500 meters.
Biknov in today's competition, Photo: Reuters
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