Erfurt / Germany

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Kjeld Nuis (NED) showed that he is ready for his Olympic debut in PyeongChang next month when he won the World Cup 1000m in Erfurt on Saturday in one minute and 8.57 seconds. Hein Otterspeer (NED) came second in 1:08.96 and Mika Poutala (FIN) came third in 1:08.99.

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“This felt good,” said Nuis with a smile on his face. “Many others will probably say that it doesn’t matter not to be too fast here, because they trained a lot to be top next month. Well, I trained a lot too, and I know I can still go a lot faster. So this race is very good, it’s a solid base.

“I was a little surprised about my time here. I did a lot of training over the past weeks and I only expected a 1:09.

“It was a good decision to race here. Not racing for a full month between the Olympic trials and the Olympic Games would have been too long.”

By finishing fourth in Erfurt, Håvard Holmefjord Lorentzen (NOR) climbed to first place in the World Cup standings with 332 points. He surpassed Kai Verbij (NED), who is recovering form a muscle injury suffered at the Dutch trials. Verbij is on 320 points, 40 points ahead of Nuis, who climbed to third place.

Full results and classifications. Follow the discussion on social media by using #WCSpeed and #SpeedSkating and watch the live stream on the ISU Skating Channel.