SHANGHAI, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- China had all its three skaters making the quarterfinals of the men's 500m short track speed skating after their good performance in the heats at the ISU World Cup on Thursday.
Wu Dajiang, the world champion in 2016, and teammate Ren Ziwei took the lead from the start to advance as the top finishers of their respective heats, while Shi Jingnan cruised into the quarterfinals as one of the six fastest third-placed skaters.
The 23-year-old Wu came out winner of Heat 1 with a time of 40.478 seconds, while Russia's legend Victor An was the distant second on 40.702.
Other hits of the event, including Hwang Dae Heon of South Korea, Charles Hameline of Canada and John-Henry Krueger of the United states also made the quarters.
Wu, the silver medalist in the 2014 Sochi Olympics, hoped his performance in the World Cup in Shanghai would give him more confidence to tune up for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
"I'm not satisfied with a silver medal in Sochi, so I want to realize my dream in PyeongChang. Of course, I am aiming at one gold in men's 500m and another gold in the relay," he said.
"I do feel better and better in every World Cup competition. Every move, every step is for the Games," he added.
In the women's 500m heats, China's Fan Kexin made it through on 43.450, ahead of Yara van Kerkhof of the Netherlands, as her compatriot Zang Yize also edged into the quarterfinals.
"Girls on the rink tried very hard in order to avoid the penalty, because everyone wants to finish all four stops of the World Cup with results, and I can see that," Fan said.
The ISU World Cup series, consisting of four stops with Shanghai the third, also serves as the Olympic qualifying for the 2018 PyeongChang Games, with the top 32 individuals and top 8 relay teams to be qualified.
Earlier, Olympic champion Zhou Yang and rookie Han Yutong, both made it through in the women's 1,500m, joining South Korean Shim Suk Hee, Choi Min Jeong and veteran Arianna Fontana of Italy in the semifinals on Saturday.
Men's 1,500m heats were dominated by South Koreans, as Hwang Dae Heon, Seo Yi Ran and Kim Do Hyoum all made it to the semifinals, together with Sjinkie Knegt of the Netherlands and Victor An of Russia.
China's Han Tianyu and Xu Hongzhi also earned their semifinal berths.
