Sven Kramer (NED) set a new 5000m World Record
The Essent ISU World Cup Speed Skating series continued this weekend in Calgary (CAN), at the Olympic Oval which is renowned for its record-breaking ice.
Ladies
In the 500m ladies, Jenny Wolf (GER) won both races, the first one was a new world record of 37.02, and also the fastest 100m opening ever, 10.13. Beixing Wang from China was number two, and she brought the Chinese record to 37.21. Sayuri Yoshii from Japan finished third and fourth, Annette Gerritsen from the Netherlands finished fourth and third, both times in a personal best. In the ranking Wolf leads with 380 points, Wang has 340, then Yoshii has 270 points.
In the 1000m, Anni Friesinger, won with a large margin and set a German record of 1.13,49. In second place Christine Nesbitt, finished with 1.14,14, and Chiara Simionato finished in third place 0.01 behind Nesbitt, paired with her.
In the 1500m, Christine Nesbitt equaled the personal best that gave her last week’s win, and the time of 1:52.75 gave her the victory once again. This time, the competition was a second closer. Anni Friesinger competed here in Calgary unlike last week, and she brought her German record time down to 1:53.09 but declared after the race nonetheless: “I am really happy!” Third person on the podium was Kristina Groves (CAN) who improved herself to 1:53.18. Nesbitt said she had been very nervous before the race, feeling the tension of expectations after she won her first World Cup race last week, but she had managed to let her racing thoughts go shortly before her race.
In the 3000m ladies, Martina Sábliková (CZE) won just like last week, this time in a new NR, 3:55.83. She had a good pair with Renate Groenewold (NED) who had the lead for most of the race and also skated a national record of 3:55.98, but with a fast final lap (31.1 second) Sábliková passed her. Kristina Groves (CAN) got the bronze with 3.58.78. The other skaters stayed above the four minute barrier. Behind Sábliková, Groenewold and Groves are ranked two and three in the World Cup as well, with Claudia Pechstein fourth in the same amount of points as Groves, after two fourth places.
Jenny Wolf (GER) breaking the 500m World Record
Men
In the 500m men, Jeremy Wotherspoon (CAN) kept up his winning streak. In the first 500m, Dmitrij Lobkov equaled his Russian record of 34,35 and finished second, with Joon Mun (KOR) in third place, who is the third Korean this year to reach the 500m podium. In the second 500m, Tucker Fredricks from the USA finished second, with a national record of 34.31 being faster than Casey FitzRandolph’s winning Olympic time. Third was Finnish skater Mika Poutala with a NR of 34.39. Kang-Seok Lee (KOR) finished fourth both days, but is still second in the ranking, with Lobkov third, followed closely by Kyou-Hyuk Lee (KOR).
The 1000m men there was a different winner for the third time in a row. Denny Morrison (CAN) won on home ground, staying 0.01 above his personal best time: 1:07.25. Jeremy Wotherspoon (CAN) started like nobody ever did before, 16.16 and then passing at 40,52 but this was too much even for the 500m world record holder, and he lost much in the final lap of 26.7, finishing in 1:07.31. Shani Davis (USA) finished third.
In the 1500m men, there was no world record this week, but the winner stayed only 0.05 second away from it. Simon Kuipers (NED) nonetheless had a remarkable race with 1:42.37 he was 1.6 seconds below his former personal best. “It took some time for me to get used to the fast icerinks. So far I won one World Cup in Heerenveen only, but I finally figured it out”, he said. He was paired with his training partner Mark Tuitert, who also took 1.3 second off his pb and finished in third place with 1:42.87. Wennemars finished in fourth place not feeling so well, but he is still leading in the ranks with 160 points, followed by Davis with 150 and Kuipers with 132.
In the 5000m, Dutch Sven Kramer wanted to put something right, after losing his world record last week to Italian Enrico Fabris. “The worst was that I felt I had not shown what I could do. So this week I wanted to give it all that I had”, he said. And he did. Starting out with 17.74 and eight laps of 28, passing the 3000m mark at 3.37,14, he took a new world record time of 6:03.32. Enrico Fabris (ITA) started again in the pair after Kramer. After 1000m Fabris was 0.01 faster than Kramer, but could not keep his laptimes that low. He finished in a new Italian record time, 6:06.42. The podium was completed by Dutch Carl Verheijen.
Team Pursuit
The German ladies and the Canadian men won the team pursuit. Second were the Canadian ladies and the Norwegian men and third the Russian ladies and the German men.
There were two world records, on the 500m Jenny Wolf, GER, 37.02, and 5000m Sven Kramer, NED, 6:03.32.
40 national records, for Belarus, Belgium(2), China(2), Czech Republic(2), Denmark(2), Finland, France, Germany(5), Hungary, Italy(2), Japan, Kazakhstan(3), South Korea(2), Netherlands(2), Norway, Poland(2), Romania(6), Russia, Spain, Switzerland and the USA.
There were 191 personal bests.
Full results are available at Results
