'Lack of aggression' leaves host floundering

Six stitches, hard collisions and adrenaline-pumping passing maneuvers — China's star skater Liu Shaoang overcame a lot, and did it all to carry the host team at the short-track world championships over the weekend in Beijing.

Unfortunately, and frustratingly, it was not enough to save Team China from signing off the critical pre-Olympics test on home ice with its worst outcome in a decade at the season-ending ISU showpiece.

Without its anchor skater Lin Xiaojun, who had to skip the Beijing worlds to recover from a shoulder surgery, the Chinese squad had its lack of depth and experience fully exposed in fiercely contested races against traditional powers, such as Canada and the Netherlands, and emerging new contenders that include Belgium, Poland and Italy at the Capital Indoor Stadium.

Its thin yield of just one silver (men's 5,000m relay) and one bronze (men's 1,500m), despite enjoying a home-ice advantage at the Beijing 2022 venue, has hit China's most decorated winter sports program with a sobering reality check. Its once world-beating edge has been blunted, with skaters from the West taking pole position in the race to Olympic podium in Italy.

As China's only individual medalist, Liu, who finished third in the 1,500m at the championships' first final, behind winner William Dandjinou and runner-up Stijn Desmet, summed up the entire campaign as "challenging, yet motivating".

"It was quite a hard season. There were a lot of new challenges that we had to overcome," said Liu, who had to get six stitches on his right thigh on Saturday evening, after a collision during the 5,000m relay semifinals resulted in an open wound on his leg.