World Sprint Champion Svetlana Zhurova (RUS) won the Olympic title in the 500m on Tuesday, ahead of Manli Wang (CHN) and Hui Ren (CHN).

In the first 500m, the Dutch medal candidate Marianne Timmer was disqualified. She regularly has one false start, but this time it was her pairmate Seung-Yong Choi from Korea who jumped the gun. When the skaters were ready the second time, Timmer moved her arm too early and which meant disqualification. Choi said that she felt pained for Timmer, as if she had caused the first false start. Timmer’s coach Orie was pragmatic: “You know that you have to stand still at a second start. Nobody else is to blame. If I see the times, she could have had bronze. Now we have to concentrate on the 1000m race, and I know this disqualification and disappointment will make her stronger. She’s going to attack the 1000m race.”

Two favourites Zhurova and Jenny Wolf (GER) skated the first 500m in pair 8. Wolf skated the first 100m in 10.3, the fastest opening of all, but stepped on a lane marker in the second turn. Zhurova beat her by half a second, skating a new rink record of 38.23, whereas the Berlin girl got stuck at 38.70. In the tenth pair Hui Ren (CHN) was faster than that with 38.60, and Korean Sang-Hwa Lee (38.69), Chinese Beixing Wang (38.71), Japanese Sayuri Osuga (38.74) and Sayuri Yoshii (38.68) all were in the same time range. Manli Wang (CHN) skated 38.31 but shook her head immediately with apparent disappointment. Tomomi Okazaki (JPN) finished third with 38.46 and had good chances to repeat the bronze she won in 1998. Italian Chiara Simionato, whose strongest distance is the 1000m, said she had been too nervous, and her second 500m was already getting better than the first (38.66 versus 39.02), so for the 1000m she expected more of herself.

For the second 500 everybody expected the big battle for the bronze as well as the 0.08 second Wang had to make up to Zhurova, which was still possible. Beixing Wang set a good time in pair 11, with 38.56 her total was 77.27. In the next pair both Sayuris skated, but Yoshii had a misstroke in the turn and they both stayed behind Beixing Wang. In the next pair Chinese Hui Ren skated, paired with Jenny Wolf. Wolf opened fast again, 10.40, but again could not have it followed by a good lap and her 38.55 was not enough. “I don’t have a subscription to the podium”, she said, “so it’s not the end of the world. I’m still looking forward to the Essent ISU World Cup Final in Heerenveen, and if I skate there like I skated here, I’ll be enough for the overall victory.”
Surprising was the time of 38.27 by her Chinese pairmate. Hui Ren said: “I gave my all because I didn’t expect anything.” Her total was 76.87. In the next and pre-last pair, both Okazaki and Lee could overtake her with a good race, but the 38.46 of Okazaki brought her total to 76.92, and Lee’s 38.35 was good, but not good enough. At that point, Ren was certain of the bronze.

Manli Wang was still confident until the last pair that she could beat Zhurova through the last inner, and was utterly disappointed when she didn’t win the gold medal she had almost counted on. Zhurova opened in 10.56, a bit slower than in the first race, and Wang in 10.59. But both stayed behind the 38.27 of Ren. Zhurova had 38.34 and Wang 38.47, which brought their totals to resp. 76.57 and 76.78. “At first, I wasn’t sure if it was enough”, Zhurova said. “But it is unbelievable. This is the second most beautiful thing in my life. The first one was the birth of my child, two years ago.”