The famous ice-rink in Inzell – with its superb view on the mountains – re-opened under a new roof on the occasion of the Essent World Single Distance Speed Skating Championships. The track records established in the open rink should be cherished as relics, as faster track records were set at all distances under the new roof. Yet there were not many surprise winners. Returning champions were Jenny Wolf, Christine Nesbitt, Ireen Wüst (at 1500, initially at 3000), Martina Sáblíkova, Shani Davis, and Bob de Jong. Kyou-Hyuk Lee and Håvard Bøkko took their first distance titles. There were seven personal bests in the men’s field and four in the ladies’.
Thursday
The first distance skated was the ladies’ 3000m. Ireen Wüst (NED) skated a new track record, 4:01.56, with a very fast start, and in the end only two difficult laps of 32.9 and 33.9. Stephanie Beckert (GER) was the next of the favourites to race. Her opening laps are always slow, but usually she has a fast lap at the end. However, Wüst’s time was too much for her, and she finished in 4:04.28, which eventually gave her bronze. Finally, Martina Sáblíková (CZE) appeared on the ice. With two laps to go, she was three seconds behind the time of Wüst, then gained a second with a 31.9 lap, but couldn’t add another 31-second lap, and she finished in 4:02.07, winning the silver medal, just like two years ago. Wüst therefore became the World Champion, the 8th skater to win the 3000m in the last eight events.
The 1500m for men brought some surprises. The bronze medal was won by Lucas Makowsky (CAN), the best result of his career. He opened in 23.73, then had laps of 35.8 and 36.8, and with a 28.7 final lap he reached 1:45.22 – a track record. It stood only until the final pair, when triple World Champion at this distance Shani Davis (USA) raced with Håvard Bøkko (NOR). Bøkko has often finished on the podium at this distance, but has never won a title. However, here he opened aggressively in 23.76, against 23.85 for Davis. Davis then took the lead with a 25.7 lap, with Bøkko making 26.0. In the next race, Davis built on his lead a little, with 26.9 over 27.2, but Davis came through in the same time as Makowsky. The last lap was going to be decisive. And where the finish is usually Davis’ strong point, his 28.6 bringing him 1:45.09 ahead of Makowsky, Bøkko made 28.0 and got his skate over the line just before Davis. This was his first senior world title, skated in 1:45.04.
Friday
Friday started with a moment of silence for the victims of the tsunami in Japan.
In the 1000m, 21-year-old Kjeld Nuis (NED) skated the best race of his life. After a 16.49 opener, he had his first-ever 25.0 lap, and a 27.1 final lap, reaching a track record of 1:08.67, only 0.03 seconds above his personal best time. Shani Davis, in the pre-last pair, was the second skater to have a 25.0 first lap: his opening was 16.75, but his final lap was fast at 26.7, and with 1:08.45 he took over the lead and the track record. In the final pair, Dutchman Stefan Groothuis, winner of the World Cup, opened in 16.66 but the slow start of his pair-mate caused problems at the lane crossing, which meant that he couldn’t enter the turn correctly, and he came out very wide. Laps of 25.1 and 26.9 brought him to 1:08.73, translated into bronze, much to his disappointment. “You have to skate well to win, but I messed up”, he said afterwards.
In the 1500m for ladies, Sábliková and Marrit Leenstra (NED) had to withdraw, as they were not feeling well. Reserve skater Jorien Voorhuis was only told in the morning that she would take Leenstra’s place, but she did surprisingly well, taking the lead with 1:57.30. The second Dutch skater, Diane Valkenburg, managed to get well below that time with 1:56.27 – her laps of 28.4, 29.9 and 31.7 were faster than everyone else’s. Wüst was the third Dutch skater, and she impressed the crowd with a perfect race. Opening in 25.87, she had laps of 28.2, 29.2 and 31.4, and brought the track record to 1:54.80. Regular medal-winner Christine Nesbitt (CAN) started fast with 25.25, and also skated a 28.2 lap, but she couldn’t continue at this pace, and slowed down. She finally reached 1:57.83, with a 30.3 and a 33.9 lap, only the fifth time she had achieved this (Russia’s Yekaterina Shikhova was fourth with 1:57.78). The podium was all orange, even with the large gaps between the times of the Dutch ladies. Wüst remarked: “It was really great, especially the second lap. All the pushes were right, and I could make speed in the turns. This is my distance!” In the audience, some people carried the slogan “Wustering Heights”, a play on words on the title of the 19th century novel by Emily Brontë.
In the 5000m men, we saw 11 nationalities in the top 12. Olympic Champion Seung-Hoon Lee (KOR) was the first to set a track record. He skated a fairly even race, with a strong finish, and reached 6:17.45. Alexis Contin (FRA), skating in the next pair, came close, but failed to finish strongly and reached 6:18.85. In the final pair, Bob de Jong (NED) and Ivan Skobrev (RUS) were paired. Skobrev gave De Jong a hard time, opening very fast. He was leading for most of the race, but from 2200m De Jong skated faster and faster, with laps below 30 seconds. At 3800m, De Jong and Skobrev made exactly the same time as Lee, so it all came down to the last three laps. Lee skated them in 30.6, 29.9 and 29.5, while De Jong managed three laps of 29.2. Skobrev tried to follow with 29.6 and 29.7, but when he saw he wouldn’t beat De Jong, he eased off a little on the final stretch, and his last 30.4 lap cost him silver: 6:17.47 won him bronze, only 0.02 behind Lee’s time.
Saturday
Wüst saw the 1000m as a chance to win a third gold medal. She opened in 18.57; then came a 27.7 lap, where no-one had previously been faster than 28.0, and her final lap was 29.1, bringing her to a new track record of 1:15.42. It was the only time achieved below the outdoor track record of local hero Friesinger when the last pair came, with defending and Olympic Champion Nesbitt and World Cup winner Heather Richardson (USA).
Richardson had the fastest opening in the field with 17.89, while Nesbitt with 18.26 was also faster than Wüst. They both then had an exceptional lap of 27.4, but then it looked like Richardson had blown up, and Nesbitt came past her through the last inner turn and – with a 29.1 final lap – was the clear winner in 1:14.84. Richardson struggled, and with a 30.1 final lap she just missed the time of silver winner Wüst: this meant a time of 1:15.45 and bronze for Richardson.
In the men’s 10,000m, the winner had always been Dutch, and this time it was no different. In pair six, Arjen van der Kieft skated a tremendous race, leaving Skobrev behind him right from the start. He was the first person to skate a 10K under 13 minutes in Inzell, finishing in 12:59.61. However, he forgot to put his transponders on, and this meant that he was disqualified, and that Skobrev with 13:08.17 (a track record) was in the lead. Pair seven featured Olympic Champion Seung-Hoon Lee and De Jong, winner of the 5000 and ten times previously on the podium in the World Championships at this distance. Lee tried to stay close to De Jong, who skated his laps within the 30 seconds. With 12 laps to go, De Jong accelerated through the turn and this time Lee could not follow. Where De Jong continued with laps between 30.3 and 29.7, Lee broke down and his laptimes went up quickly to above 34 seconds. Lee finished behind Skobrev this time, with 13:08.84, but De Jong’s time was 12:48.20. This was a personal best, and the second best time ever: only Sven Kramer was faster once in Salt Lake City. De Jong was the winner cum laude, and his team-mate Bob de Vries raced to silver in the last pair in an even race: 13:04.62, 16 seconds behind the winner, who celebrated his 4th title at this distance, together with four silver and three bronzes.
In the 5000m ladies, the defending champion and World Cup winner Sábliková was the main favourite. Usually her main battle is with Beckert, and Wüst didn’t race in the 5000m. All eyes were on Claudia Pechstein (GER), returning strongly after a two-year absence. The 39-year-old, who won her first Olympic medal at this distance in 1992, raced to 7:00.90. Not yet a track record, but it was good enough for the bronze medal, her eleventh medal at the 5000m in the World Distance Championships. Sábliková skated an very flat race, with laptimes between 32.3 and 32.6, and set a new track record, 6:50.83. In the final pair, Beckert was also below the former track record, but she could not keep her laptimes low enough. 6:54.99 gave her silver.
Sunday
Sunday was the day for the 500m races. Unlike at the Olympics, both 500m races are skated here on the same day. Jenny Wolf (GER) won her fourth 500m title in a row. Annette Gerritsen (NED) was the first to skate a track record, in 38.14, Jenny Wolf won the first race in 37.98, and in the last pair Olympic champion Sang-Hwa Lee (KOR) skated the same time as Gerritsen. There was a new personal best for Hong Zhang (CHN), at 38.48, fifth behind her team-mate Beixing Wang, who skated 38.35. In the second race, Judith Hesse (GER) skated a personal best of 38.13 and reached 5th overall. Beixing Wang and Sang-Hwa Lee were paired, and helped each other to fast times: 38.03 for Lee, 38.04 for Wang. Wolf and Gerritsen skated in the final pair. Wolf opened in 10.29 and set a faster track record of 37.95. Gerritsen had a big mis-stroke at the start, and as a result her 38.33 meant she was just off the podium. The total times over two races were 75.93 for Wolf, 76.16 for Lee and 76.39 for Wang, who finished third after four silver medals in the four previous events of this tournament.
The first skater to achieve a track record in the men’s 500m created a big surprise. Ermanno Ioriatti (ITA), 35 years old, set a time of 35.07, only 0.01 above his own national record. Then Mika Poutala (FIN) improved that with 34.89, his best time of the season. Jan Smeekens (NED) opened in 9.71, but then had the fastest final lap and set 34.77, the best time in the first run. Defending champion Kang-Seok Lee (KOR) fell, and his team-mate Kyou-Hyuk Lee finished only 0.01 behind Smeekens. In the second race, there were even faster times. Dmitry Lobkov improved the track record to 34.64, which only stood until Kato and Lee skated. Kato opened in 9.47, and Lee in 9.57. The Korean was able to get behind Kato at the crossing, and took many risks. This paid off, as his time was the second best ever skated in Europe: 34.32. His total was 69.10, and so the World Sprint champion also became 500m champion. Kato also skated well with 34.52, and made 69.42 in total. Smeekens needed a personal best to reach the podium, and that is what he did: 34.66 was his second race, which brought him 69.43 in total, bronze, 0.01 behind Kato.
The Canadian Ladies won the Team Pursuit just like last time. Silver was won by the Dutch ladies, for whom Wüst was at times too fast for Valkenburg, and bronze went to the German team.
For the first time in history, the Dutch men did not win. They finished third, and the US team won with Davis, Marsicano and Kuck. The Canadian men stayed very close together and ahead of the Americans until the final lap, where they ended up with silver. Winning times were 2.59.74 for the ladies and 3:41.72 for the men, both track records.
Results
