#SpeedSkating

Three-time World Allround Champion Patrick Roest (NED) won his first World Cup title in Heerenveen on Saturday. The Dutchman maintained his unbeaten status this season, winning his fifth race in the long distances at the World Cup final. Roest’s team-mate and compatriot Thomas Krol (NED) beat his best friend Kai Verbij (NED) to take home the 1000m World Cup title. Tatsuya Shinhama (JPN) won Saturday's 500m to take the lead in the World Cup ranking with Sunday's final 500m race to come. 

Three-time World Allround Champion Patrick Roest (NED) won his first World Cup title in Heerenveen on Saturday. The Dutchman maintained his unbeaten status this season, winning his fifth race in the long distances at the World Cup final. Roest’s team-mate and compatriot Thomas Krol (NED) beat his best friend Kai Verbij (NED) to take home the 1000m World Cup title. Tatsuya Shinhama (JPN) won Saturday's 500m to take the lead in the World Cup ranking with Sunday's final 500m race to come.

Men's 500m 

Viktor Mushtakov (RUS) and Ruslan Murashov (RUS) were on top of the 500m World Cup heading into the final weekend, but Tatsuya Shinhama (JPN) brought his best form after having won the World Sprint title in Hamar last week.

The Japanese ace stopped the clock at 34.31, equalling Michel Mulder's (NED) 2013 track record, which had already been matched by Pavel Kulizhnikov (RUS) at the European Championships in January.

Shinhama had a great start, leaving the line so fast he initially thought it was a false start. 

"But the referee did not stop me, so I went on. In the last corner I made a little mistake, but I was super happy to equal the track record."

Shinhama swerved out of the final inner corner slightly, but it did not overly hamper him.

"This season I have learned a lot and it doesn't really matter to me whether I have the last inner or outer corner anymore," he said. 

Laurent Dubreuil (CAN) took second place in 34.416 and Jun-Ho Kim (KOR) third in 34.418. 

Mushtakov (RUS) came 10th and dropped to second in the World Cup ranking, while Murashov (RUS) came fifth and fell back to fourth place.

Shinhama enters the final 500m on Sunday in pole position to win the 500m World Cup, with Mushtakov trailing by 26 points and Kim 31 points behind in third.

ISU World Cup Speed Skating Standings 500m Men

 

Men’s 5000m: Roest rules the roost in long distances

Patrick Roest (NED) won the men's long distance World Cup with a convincing gold medal in 6:11.15 in the 5000m on Saturday. He left Canadians Graeme Fish (6:12.83) and Ted-Jan Bloemen (6:13.72) well behind.

The Dutchman won four 5000m races and the only 10,000m race this World Cup season.

Despite his dominance, he was far from assured of the World Cup title as he had skipped the 5000m at the fourth World Cup event in Nagano.

"It's difficult to win the overall World Cup if you don't skate at all the events," Roest said. "So to take the title home, I really had to win everything."

Roest admitted to being a bit rusty after having won last week's World Allround title in Hamar. 

"My race was good, especially because I was still a bit tired after last week. I gave it my all and I'm glad it was enough to win the race and the title.

"It's always great to win in front of a sold-out Thialf [stadium]."

Roest's closest rival, Danila Semerikov (RUS), finished fourth in 6:16.38 to take second place in the World Cup ranking and Fish took third place overall.

ISU World Cup Speed Skating Standings 5000m Men

 

 

Gold medallist Thomas Krol of the Netherlands shares the moment with teammate Kai Verbij (bronze) and Canada’s Laurent Dubreuil (silver)

 

Men's 1000m: Krol beats best friend Verbij

The difference between World Cup leader Kai Verbij (NED) and his best friend Thomas Krol (NED) was two points going into the final 1000m race on Saturday.

The two faced each other in the fourth pairing where the winner would take it all. 

"It's good to skate against Thomas, that way we would know it straight after the race [who won the World Cup]," Verbij said.

Krol took the initiative and did not give way throughout the rest of the race. With 1:07.85 he was the only one to finish under 1:08. Verbij clocked 1:08.13 and had to settle for bronze behind Laurent Dubreuil (CAN), who took his second silver medal of the day.

"Thomas started superfast and I couldn't keep up. The laps that followed were good, but then he was gone already," Verbij said.

"I'm gutted not to win, but it's the result of a mediocre year. I've been struggling with my material too much this year, more than I was working on my skating itself." 

Krol was delighted to take his career first World Cup.

"I'm very happy that I'm finally back where I want to be. It was a disappointing month. The World [Single Distance] Championships did not go the way I wanted to.

"Today I could not win a world title, but I could win the overall World Cup and I'm very glad I did. It shows that I had a consistent and good season."

Dubreuil's silver medal was good enough for third place in the final ranking.