Patrick Roest (NED) won a second successive 5000m gold in the World Cup and the fourth of his career with a track record on the first day of the ISU World Cup Speed Skating in Tomaszów Mazowiecki on Friday. In the team sprint the Dutch men switched their line-up but also clinched their second World Cup win of the season.
Patrick Roest (NED) on his way to his second successive 5000m World Cup win of the season 2019©International Skating Union (ISU)
Roest started in the penultimate pair versus Graeme Fish (CAN) and set out in track record pace. Seitaro Ichinohe (JPN) had already broken the 2017 mark of 6:37.50 set by Jan Szymański (POL), when he won the B Division in 6:25.64.
Semerikov finishes fast
Danila Semerikov (RUS) bettered that new record by clocking 6:20.46, but Roest was just over a second faster in 6:19.38. The Dutchman skated a well-balanced race with five sub-30 and seven sub-31-second laps. Semerikov only skated his first sub-30 lap at the 3400m split, but concluded his race subsequently with three more sub-30-second laps. It had not worried Roest too much. "You know that he's quick towards the end, that's what he always does,” said Roest. Jac [coach Jac Orie] said I was on a good pace so I knew I was all right."
Semerikov's time turned out to be good enough for silver, with his compatriot Denis Yuskov (RUS) taking his second 5000m bronze of the season in 6:24.30. Yuskov surpassed Jorrit Bergsma (NED) in the World Cup ranking after last week's silver medalist came sixth in 6:26.12.
Roest with silver medalist Danila Semerikov (RUS) and third-placed Denis Yuskov (RUS) 2019©International Skating Union (ISU)
Roest stays on top of the long distance World Cup ranking with Semerikov in second place. "It's nice to be on top," he said. "I will skate in Kazakhstan [3rd leg of the ISU World Cup in December], but I'll skip Nagano [fourth leg in December], so I don't know what the classification looks like after that. I do definitely want to skate the World Cup final in Heerenveen [7-8 march].
ISU World Cup Speed Skating Standings 500m Men
Master class in Team Sprint
The Dutch men gave a master class in the Team Sprint. With Thomas Krol skating instead of Kai Verbij, the orange machine hammered out a time of 1:20.06. China, who took silver with only a 0.15 deficit in Minsk last week, did not even come close with 1:20.84 in Tomaszów. Canada took bronze in 1:20.96.
"I think this was perfect," Ronald Mulder (NED) said. The first skater of the Dutch team did not drop his team-mates by starting too fast. "That's the art, not to start too fast. That's what many teams do. They set a very fast first lap, but that's not what this race is about. It feels a bit unnatural to start holding back a bit. I have to drag the others into full speed smoothly and that went very well today. We skated almost as fast as we did at the World Championships in Inzell last year and this ice is much slower, so that says a lot."
Ronald Mulder (NED) led out the Dutch men on their march to gold in the Team Sprint 2019©International Skating Union (ISU)
Kjeld Nuis (NED), who was the third skater last week, was on second lap duty this week, leaving the third lap pain to team-mate Krol, who skated his first Team Sprint World Cup race in five years. "This one was by the book," Krol said. "I was nervous beforehand, because it was such a long time ago that I did a Team Event. If you make a mistake in an individual race, you only hurt yourself, but in a Team Event there's two others involved. But it went very well. We have a very good line-up, but the line-up with Kai [Verbij] is very good too. We all know each other very well and we've trained a lot together over the years."
ISU World Cup Speed Skating Standings Team Sprint Men
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ISU World Cup Speed Skating Series 2019/20:
