China's skaters set two world junior records today at the ISU World Junior Short Track Championships in Montreal ©Getty Images

The International Skating Union World Junior Short Track Championships has begun in Montreal with qualifying action at the Maurice Richard Arena.

At the event which was originally set to take place in South Korea before being relocated due to "internal Korean Skating Union issues", the most advanced action went ahead in the men’s and women’s 3,000 metres relays, with China qualifying for the semi-finals in both events with world junior records.

On the men’s side, they advanced from heat two with a winning time of 4min 00.576sec, over a second ahead of Kazakhstan, who qualified in second.

The other countries to make it through were The Netherlands, United States, Japan and Russia, while hosts Canada and Hungary also advanced as fastest losers.

Winning heat one it was The Netherlands who went through with the second fastest time, finishing their race in 4:01.729.

In the women’s event, in heat three China set a world junior record record of 4:16.043.

That puts them through to the semi-finals as the fastest team by almost two seconds ahead of South Korea, who triumphed in heat one.

The other races were won by Poland and the US, but in much slower times of 4:23.079 and 4:22.129 respectively.

In the individual events there were also quarter-finals in the men’s and women’s 1,500m.

Japan’s Kazuki Yoshinaga, a silver medallist at the World Junior Championships last year, advanced through to the semis by finishing second in heat one in 2:29.165.

He goes through as far from the fastest qualifier, however, and will need to improve if he is to win a medal once again.

South Korea’s Tae Sung Kim won that heat in 2:29.023, while every athlete in heat three set faster times, as did four skaters in heat two, and many others from the other four heats.

Qualifying fastest was South Korea’s Hyun Woo Chang, who won heat four in 2:16.070, more than 13 seconds faster.

In the women’s event the fastest qualifier was Canada’s Courtney Lee Sarault, the winner of heat two in 2:25.676.

Preliminary action also went ahead today in the men’s and women’s 500m, with South Korea’s Hyun Woo Chang and Whi Min Seo qualifying fastest for the semi-finals in each.

The first medals of the competition are due to won tomorrow, when finals go ahead in the men’s and women’s 1,500m and the 500m events.