#SpeedSkating
Laurent Dubreuil (CAN) came into the fourth World Cup as leader but he saved the best for the home ice in Calgary. With 33.80 seconds the world champion skated under 34 seconds for the first time in his career, winning the 500m by a 0.09 margin. Nils van der Poel (SWE) extended his unbeaten streak in the long distance World Cup to four but left the race with mixed feelings, finishing in six minutes and 4.29 seconds, 0.97 short of Sven Kramer’s 2007 track record.
Perfect day for Dubreuil
When Dubreuil got to the start of his 500m race three men had already broken the 34-second barrier on the fast Calgary ice on Friday.
Tingyu Gao (CHN) had clocked 33.87s, Yuma Murakami (JPN) 33.89s and Viktor Mushtakov (RUS) 33.96s.
Laurent Dubreuil (CAN) © International Skating Union (ISU)
Dubreuil finished in 33.77s, pushing Mushtakov off the podium and leaving Gao and Murakami to silver and bronze. The 29-year-old from Quebec pieced everything together in a near-perfect performance.
“I was happy with the races in Europe and last week,” he said.
“But I was always saying ‘there's a couple of mistakes here and there’. Today there weren't as many mistakes.
“Obviously there's always stuff that you think you can do better but it's my fastest start ever by five hundreds and the lap was good as well. So it was really as close to perfect as I can do right now.
“The last time I felt this good and maybe the only time (so far) was last year at the World Championships probably. Once in a while you have a race like that, you show up and you feel good physically and you execute almost perfectly. Today was one of those days.”
Dubreuil retained the lead in the 500m World Cup ranking with Tatsuya Shinhama and Wataru Morishige (JPN) in second and third.
Japanese depth
Winning bronze on Friday, Murakami showed the depth of Japanese sprinting. After Shinhama, Morishige and Yamato Matsui, he became the fourth Japanese skater on the 500m podium this season.
Murakami explained why he had a slower start to the season than his compatriots.
Yuma Murakami (JPN) © International Skating Union (ISU)
“I suffered a shoulder injury after a crash in pre-season training in Inzell (Germany) in November. It hampered me in the previous World Cups but now I’m fully recovered.”
Searching for six minutes in another universe
After last week’s 5000m world record (6:01.56) in Salt Lake City, Nils van der Poel came to Calgary with high expectations.
“I wanted to try to go under six (minutes),” he said. “That was the reason we went (to Calgary) and gave it a shot and I realized quite soon that that wasn't the shape of the day.
“It did not really play out the way I thought it would.”
Nils van der Poel (SWE) © International Skating Union (ISU)
Van der Poel had altered his season planning after the first two World Cups in Poland and Norway.
“Before (the season), we talked about doing two competitions only. If we won those, we wouldn't go to North America and we decided to go anyway. Since the gap was so big, we wanted to grasp for more and try to challenge the world record.”
With a time of six minutes and 4.29 seconds, Van der Poel came a little less than three seconds short of the world record he set in Salt Lake City last week.
Davide Ghiotto (ITA) took silver in 6:09.34. Skating in the final pair, the Italian knew exactly what he had to do.
“First place was impossible because Van der Poel is in another universe but I knew the time of Ted-Jan Bloemen (CAN) and I tried to stay under,” Ghiotto explained.
Bloemen rediscovers his mojo
Bloemen had set 6:09.52 in the penultimate pairing. He was almost five seconds faster than last week in Salt Lake City but he was not where he wanted to be just yet.
“Last week was sh*t and today was sh*t and then followed up by some good laps. So I'm on the way back.
“Don’t get me wrong, I'm happy to perform like this today after last week's race but I know I'm much better than this.
“Earlier this year, when the conditions weren't as fast as now, I already did a 6.06. So I'm missing something a little bit right now but I think in the end of the race there, I found something back. I was battling, battling, hurting, hurting and then finally I got through and I found my mojo again.”
Van der Poel and Bloemen stayed in first and second place in the World Cup ranking with Ghiotto climbing up to third place in absence of Jorrit Bergsma, and Patrick Roest (NED).
500m Men
ISU World Cup Speed Skating Standings 500m Men
5000m Men
ISU World Cup Speed Skating Standings 5000m Men
The event entry quotas for the individual distances will be determined by the Special Olympic Qualification Classification (SOQC) based on results from the different ISU World Cup Speed Skating Competitions and the full details are available in ISU Communication 2405.
For full entry lists and further information regarding the ISU World Cup Speed Skating Series please visit: isu.org/speed-skating. Results are here and you can follow the discussion on social media by using #SpeedSkating.
Where to Watch
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Highlights, clips, interviews, behind the scenes:
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For further information on ISU Speed Skating visit https://www.isu.org/speed-skating
ISU World Cup Speed Skating Series 2021/22:
Tomaszów Mazowiecki (POL) – Nov 12 – 14, 2021
Stavanger (NOR) - Nov 19 - Nov 21, 2021
Salt Lake City (USA) - Dec 03 - Dec 05, 2021
Calgary (CAN) – Dec 10 - Dec 12, 2021
Final – Heerenveen (NED) – Mar 12 - Mar 13, 2022
About ISU World Cup Speed Skating Series
The ISU World Cup Speed Skating is a Series of international Speed Skating competitions which takes place annually. The Series started in 1984 and usually consists of six or seven Events including the ISU World Cup Speed Skating Final. However during the Olympic season the Series consists of five Events.
Skaters can earn points at each competition, and the Skater who has the most points on a given distance at the end of the Series is the World Cup winner of that distance. The World Cup Competitions held from November to December serve as qualifying events for entry quotas at the ISU European, World Single Distances, World Sprint and World Allround Speed Skating Championships and during the Olympic season they are Olympic Qualifying Events. A number of World Cup titles are awarded every season; For Men: 500m, 1000m, 1500m, combined 5000m / 10,000m, Mass Start, Team Pursuit and Team Sprint. For Women 500m, 1000m, 1500m, the combined 3000m / 5000m, Mass Start, Team Pursuit and Team Sprint. For further information please visit isu.org/WorldCupSpeedSkating.
