Victor Koretzky wins his first rainbow jersey at the 2024 Short Track World Championship

The French Victor Koretzky has signed a very solid career to win a Short Track World Championship 2024. The great favorite Tom Pidcock has been very delayed by a fall in the first lap. Charlie Aldridge was second and Alan Hatherly closed the podium.

Victor Koretzky wins the Short Track World Championship 2024

With a list of favorites that did not enter the front line of the grid, the elite men's Short Track race started in Andorra. A race in which it was going to be decided who would wear the rainbow jersey from now on and in which all bets pointed towards the newly crowned Olympic champion Thomas Pidcock.

The Frenchman Jordan Sarrou, the Dane Simon Andreassen, and the South African Alan Hatherly were the first to fight to take the lead of the race while the Spanish Jofre Cullel also had a very good start and positioned himself well among the top 10. But bad luck struck him and he was involved in a fall with the British Tom Pidcock in lap 2. An incident that relegated them behind the Top 20.

The race was decided in 10 laps and with 7 laps to go, the leading group remained lined up but united. In it, we found important men like Sarrou, Andreassen, Aldridge, Koretzky, or Hatherly. After a small gap of 3 seconds, a large chasing group was following, in which we saw the defending champion, Sam Gaze, or the German Luca Schawarzbauer.

The fall had left the British Tom Pidcock very delayed, but he was once again executing one of his particular comebacks and from position 23 he was trying to see if he would have time to reach the top positions in just 4 laps.

In lap 8, the Frenchmen Sarrou and Koretzky were firmly holding the lead, followed by Andreassen and the South African Hatherly, but none managed to open a gap.

The first strong attack was led by Victor Koretzky at the start of the penultimate lap and with a hard change of pace, he managed to gain a few seconds of advantage over the rest. Thus began the last lap.

The tenth lap left us with an imposing Victor Koretzky who gave no chances to anyone. The Frenchman crossed the finish line first to claim the rainbow jersey. The British Aldridge took silver and the South African Hatherly won bronze in a sprint with Blevins.

1. Victor Koretzky - FRA - 21:49
2. Charlie Aldridge - GBR - 21:52
3. Alan Hatherly - RSA - 21:52
4. Christopher Blevins - USA - 21:52
5. Jordan Sarrou - FRA - 22:03
6. Luca Braidot - ITA - 22:03
7. Simon Andreassen - DEN - 22:11
8. Thomas Pidcock - GBR - 22:12
9. Luca Schwarzbauer - GER - 22:14
10. Martins Blums - LAT - 22:15