Some of the biggest teams like Colombia, France and Chinese Taipei arrived today and yesterday. Coming from their stopover in Toronto, the Colombian team is one of the largest teams in the competition with 24 athletes. Italy, the USA and Korea will be their biggest rivals.

Yesterday morning, the G|French arrived from Paris. They are staying at the Samwon Plaza Hotel and hope to build on their good 2005 results where they won 19 medals in Suzhou. No doubt, the French team will have great potential this year with their new star Yan Guyader

¨The track seems to be really fast with long straight and short corners but is really bumpy. I’d like to get a title after being second last year but I would be happy with any kind of medals cause after the long marathon season and European Championships. I’m really tired at the moment. I’m really not in my best shape of the season but you know racing alone the whole season is hard¨ said Guyader.

After his great results at the World Inline Cup (6th at the world ranking) winning the marathons in Saint Moritz and Munich and of a shining performance in the recent European Championships in Cassano d´Adda (Italy), Yan Guyader is one of the big candidates to medal in the long distance events. ¨I guess I’m one of the candidates but the Colombians, Koreans and Mantia are still the favorite because they are really traditional racers along the year whereas I focus on the marathons. Good luck to all the skaters competing at the Worlds¨ Yan said.

Some of the big absentees in the French Team are Pascal Briand and Alexis Contin, two of the stars of inline speed skating who announced their retirement of this type of competitions to focus mainly on the marathons and on long track ice speed skating.