It was a historic Friday for Polish skating in Berlin. After Artur Was (POL) grabbed his career first World Cup victory in the Men’s 500m, his compatriots Zbigniew Bródka, Jan Szymanski and Konrad Niedzwiedzki clinched the first Polish World Cup gold in the Men’s Team Pursuit to wrap up the first day of the third leg in the ISU World Cup Speed Skating series 2014/15. World Cup leader Pavel Kulizhnikov (RUS) crashed in the final pair of the 500m. Ireen Wüst (NED) won the 3.000m for Ladies and Sang-Hwa Lee (KOR) took her fourth World Cup win of the season in the Ladies’ 500m.
Achtereekte sets best time in B-Division in 3000m
When Ireen Wüst took the ice in the sixth pair of the Ladies’ 3000m, no skater in the A-division had managed to beat the 4:00.80, which was set by Carlijn Achtereekte (NED) in the B-Division. Achtereekte had only missed the track record by 0.05 seconds. Wüst did not manage to beat the track record either, nor did she beat Achtereekte’s time. Her 4:01.55 was fast enough to win the A-Division however. Marije Joling (NED) finished second in a personal best time of 4:03.34 and Martina Sábliková (CZE) took the bronze in 4:05.36.
Wüst was on track record pace until 2200m, but she couldn’t maintain her speed in the two final laps. She said: “It was a good race, especially the first five laps. The last two were hard. Carlijn Achtereekte was the fastest today. I am not sure if you can compare divisions. But anyway, it is a very fast time, well done.”
Carien Kleibeuker (NED) set a personal best with 4:03.79, which was the second best time in the B-division and the fourth best time of the day. The fifth Dutch lady, Jorien Voorhuis, finished fifth in the A-division, behind Olympic bronze medallist Olga Graf (RUS).
Sábliková leads the World Cup with 230 points, Wüst climbed to second with 200 and Claudia Pechstein (GER), who finished sixth on Friday, is third with 185.
Heather Richardson (USA) to silver with wild card in 500m
Sang-Hwa Lee was the only lady to skate below 38, when she set 37.87 in the 500m. She beat Heather Richardson (USA), who had set a fast 38.21 in the first pair. The American lady made her first World Cup appearance in Berlin and raced on a wild card after having been absent in Asia.
Margot Boer (NED) came close to Richardson’s time, when she set 38.40 to keep her team mate Nao Kodaira (JPN) 0.01 behind for the bronze medal. Judith Hesse (GER) finished fifth on home soil and Sochi Olympic silver medallist Olga Fatkulina (RUS) was sixth.
Lee increased her World Cup lead. She has 480 points, Kodaira has 400 and Fatkulina 231.
Was first Polish winner in 500m, crash for Kulizhnikov
Poland’s Artur Was faced Olympic Champion Michel Mulder (NED) in the first pair of the 500m. Both skaters entered the A-Division on wild cards because they had skipped the World Cup races in Asia. Mulder won a bronze and a gold medal at the World Championships Inline Skating in Argentina. Despite the inline break, Mulder was pretty fast on the ice on Friday, but Was was even faster.
Nobody came close to Was’ 35.01 nor to Mulder’s 35.12, until the holder of the junior world record, Laurent Dubreuil (CAN) entered the rink. Like the two skaters in the first pair, he managed a 25.3 full lap, and he finished between them on the podium with 35.09. Ryohei Haga (JPN) ended up fourth, 0.01 behind Mulder.
In the final pair World Cup leader Pavel Kulizhnikov (RUS) faced second ranked Jan Smeekens (NED). Kulizhnikov lost his balance in the first inner turn and hit the cushions. Smeekens had to slow down to avoid a collision and finished in the 14th time (35.50). He applied for a re-skate, which was granted after the Men’s Team Pursuit, but it did not bring him a faster time.
Artur Was became the second Polish man (after Zbigniew Bródka in the 1500m) to win a World Cup race.
Kulizhnikov retained the lead in the World Cup with 385 points, Smeekens is still second with 284 and Dubreuil climbed to rank three with 271 points.
Polish men win Team Pursuit
They grabbed Olympic silver in Sochi, but they had never won a World Cup Race in Team Pursuit before. Zbigniew Bródka, Jan Szymanski and Konrad Niedzwiedzki (POL) faced Russia in the penultimate pair and started cautiously. The Russians took the lead, but could not keep their pace and after five laps, the Polish team took over to finish in 3:45:88.
In the final pair, Korea faced the Netherlands, who had won 12 of the last 13 team pursuit World Cup events, including the last 10. The Dutch missed Sven Kramer and Wouter Olde Heuvel, who chose to train in Collalbo instead of race in Berlin this weekend. Both the Dutch (Douwe de Vries, Arjen Stroetinga and Frank Vreugdenhil) and the Koreans (Seung-Hoon Lee, Cheol-Min Kim and Byung-Wook Ko) could not come close to the Polish time. Korea started faster than the Netherlands, but the Dutch came back to take a brief lead. Korea countered with a great 27.6 final lap, to beat the Netherlands and take the silver in 3:46.97. The Dutch had to settle for bronze in 3:47.58.
Armin Hager, Bram Smallenbroek and Linus Heidegger improved the Austrian record in the Team Pursuit to 3:49.94 to finish seventh.
The Netherlands still lead the World Cup with 170 points, directly followed by Poland with 160 and Korea with 160.