Saturday

Three ladies were faster than 1:58.70: first of them was Marrit Leenstra, the Dutch all round champion, who reached 1:57.59. The leader in the ranking, Christine Nesbitt (CAN), was paired with Ireen Wüst (NED) and went away fast. However, Wüst kept fighting until the end and reaching the side of Nesbitt at the finishing straight, managed to take the distance in 1:56.99, Nesbitt was second with 1:57.03. Leenstra completed the podium.

Nesbitt still leads, now with 360 points, Wüst has 350 and Leenstra moved up to third with 201 points.

In the Mens' 5,000m the podium was all Dutch. The leader in the ranking, Jorrit Bergsma, was absent, but teammate Bob de Jong had travelled to Hamar and managed to outrace Sven Kramer in a direct duel. For much of the race, the two were slower than the leader at that point, Jan Blokhuijsen, who had arrived in 6:22.47. Kramer was leading most of the race and used the last lap to come in ahead of Blokhuijsen's time, finishing in 6:21.87. De Jong however managed to speed up even more in the final two laps, overtaking Kramer and winning in 6:21.23. De Jong and Kramer now share the lead in the ranking with 290 points, Bergsma still has 280, so that competition remains tight.

Sunday

In the Ladies' 3000m, the leader in the ranking, European champion Martina Sábliková (CZE) was paired with Ireen Wüst, who took the lead from the start. With two laps to go, just as in the Men's 5000m, Sábliková overtook Wüst. Sábliková won in 4:05.88, Wüst finished in 4:06.57, just too slow for the number two spot, as Stephanie Beckert (GER) was second with 4:06.42. The number two in the ranking, Claudia Pechstein (GER), was absent because of an injury. Sábliková won all long distance races this season and leads with 400 points. Pechstein follows with 230. Behind her, Beckert and Wüst both have 210 points.

In the Mens' 1500m, the first skater that was faster than the winner of the B-division was Sverre Lunde Pedersen (NOR) with 1:47.56. The young Norwegian had a final lap of 28.6, which was the best final lap in the field. Also his countryman Håvard Bøkko had such a fast last lap in which he overtook his pair mate Stefan Groothuis (NED), the world sprint champion. Bøkko finished in 1:47.21 and Groothuis' 1:47.55 was enough to deny Lunde Pedersen the podium. World record holder Shani Davis (USA) won in 1:47.08, Denny Morrison (CAN) shared the fourth place with Lunde Pedersen. Ivan Skobrev (RUS) lost his lead in the ranking, which was taken by Davis with 280 points. Bøkko moved to second with 252 and Morrison is third with 240.

In the Team Pursuit, the Russian ladies won in 3:04.83, the Polish team skated strong and finished in 3:05.57, and were second, ahead of Korea who was third with 4:05.65. The Russians took over the lead with 250 points, Canada has 240 and Korea is third with 200.

In the men's field the victory went also to the Russian team. They needed to climb from rank 10 to top 8 in order to skate the World Single Distance Championships and clearly succeeded, to the chagrin of the 2006 Olympic Champion, Italy. Russia posted a strong 3:45.42. As before, the Korean team reached second place with 3:46.68 and the Germans were third in 3:46.87. The Dutch leaders in the rankings fell and finished last, but still lead with 224 points, Korea has 220 and Germany 210.

The World Cup series will continue the first weekend of March in Heerenveen and then conclude in Berlin a week later.

Results