Speed Skating short-track records tumble at W.Cup

American J.R. Celski became the first short-track speedskater to break the 40-second barrier over 500 meters, setting a world record of 39.973 in a World Cup final. South Korea's Kwak Yoon-Gy and Shim Suk-Hee on Sunday also re-wrote the record books, in the men's and women's 1,000m semi-finals. Kwak broke the men's record with a time of 1:23.007, and Shim set the women's mark in 1:26.661. The previous record for the men's 500m was 40.651sec, set by South Korea's Sung Si-Bak at Marquette, Michigan, on November 14, 2009. In the 1,000m, Kwak bettered the previous record of 1:23.454 set by Canadian Charles Hamelin in Montreal on January 18, 2009. Shim beat the women's 1,000m mark of 1:27.653 established Canadian Valerie Maltais in qualifying here on Friday. Shim went on to win the women's final in 1:29.247, but Russia's Victor An won the men's 1,000m final in 1:24.519. China's world record-holder Wang Meng won the women's 500m final in 43.240. In all, six world records fell in three days of competition, including the men's 500m and 5,000m relay marks.