“He’s the best in the world right now,” said both Laurent Dubreuil (CAN) and Yuma Murakami (JPN) after they settled for silver and bronze behind Wataru Morishige (JPN) in the men’s 500m at the ISU World Cup in Beijing on Saturday. Morishige took his second gold of the weekend and his third consecutive in the World Cup. Patrick Roest (NED) made it back-to-back golds in the 5000m, while the US men won the Team Sprint in experimental fashion.
The Men's 500m podium (l-r): silver medalist Laurent Dubreuil (CAN), Wataru Morishige (JPN), who took gold, and Yuma Murakami (JPN) © ISU
Gao Tingyu (CHN) was the first to skate under 35 seconds on Saturday, when he set 34.94 in the second pairing. The Olympic champion had been promoted to the A Division after he had convincingly won the B Division race on Friday. He was happy to be back on the ice after having been sidelined last season. “I hope to be able to skate competitively throughout the whole season, but I’m still struggling with injury,” he said.
Gao’s time stood until the penultimate pairing, in which Dubreuil took on Morishige. Dubreuil had been struggling to find his form so far this season. On Friday he raced against Murakami, only to end up sixth in 35.06s. Saturday’s match-up against Morishige suited him better.
Dubrueil said: “Morishige is the best in the world right now, but his start is not faster than mine. I even think I was ahead off the start.
“It's easier when there's somebody to challenge you, but who’s not way ahead. Yuma [Murakami] is so good at the start that it just threw me off yesterday.”
Dubreuil was 0.01 slower than Morishige in the opener, and lost more ground in the full lap, with Morishige’s 25.0 the fastest in the field. The Japanese World Cup leader stopped the clock at 34.69s; Dubreuil finished in 34.81.
'Best in the world': Wataru Morishige makes it three 500m ISU World Cup golds already this season © ISU
“My lap time is stable this season,” Morishige said. “It’s probably because of my short-track training over the summer.”
Having won three World Cup races in a row, he’s well on track to push Dubreuil off the throne. After winning the World Cup classification the past two years, Dubreuil is already 68 points behind after four races this season.
“The gap is so big,” he admitted. “Even if I win all races the rest of the season, he can still stay ahead if he managed to skate on the podium.”
Morishige also faces competition from countrymen Murakami and Tatsuya Shinhama, who are second and third after four races.
“The World Cup is one of my goals this season, but the World Single Distance Championships is my main goal,” Morishige said.
Murakami finished third on Saturday, pushing Gao off the podium. The Japanese skater matched the time he skated on Friday, 34.82s. He thought he could have done better, however.
“My feeling is different from yesterday,” he said. “Today I swerved out of the final inner corner, which cost me time, but my start and the backstretch were very good.”
Same top five, different match-ups in 5000m
The Men’s 5000m finished with the exact same top-five skaters as last week in Obihiro, Japan. The race unfolded differently, however. Whereas Patrick Roest (NED) beat Davide Ghiotto (ITA) in a straight match-up in Obihiro, he had to set a bar for the Italian in Beijing. Roest lined up against last week’s number five Sverre Lunde Pedersen (NOR), while last week’s number four Ted-Jan Bloemen (CAN) took the ice in the penultimate pairing and Ghiotto faced last week’s number three Sander Eitrem (NOR).
“Normally, chasing a sharp time, is more fun [than setting the bar yourself], although that can be tough too, when the time is really fast,” Roest admitted.
The Dutch World Champion clocked a fast time of 6:11.40.
'The pacing was perfect': Patrick Roest (NED) makes it back-to-back 5000m victories at the ISU World Cup Speed Skating in Beijing, China © ISU
“I took off with a time between 6.10 and 6.12 as a target. It’s always searching a bit from the start and then I try to bring the lap times down in the second part of the race. I got it to 29.0 and that was the limit. The pacing was perfect,” he said.
Bloemen couldn’t match Roest. Neither could Ghiotto and Eitrem - although both tried their best, starting out faster than their Dutch rival.
“Today was very hard very hard, because I saw the perfect time on the scoreboard,” Ghiotto said. “In the first part I tried to stay with that time, but I know Eitrem and he's very, very strong. I wanted to keep up [with Roest], but with four laps to go. I understood that it was impossible to beat Patrick, and I had to stay with Eitrem to battle for second place.”
Ghiotto managed to keep Eitrem at bay, finishing in 6:14.25. The Norwegian completed his race in 6:15.42 and was content with his performance.
“I don’t think [Roest’s time] was feasible for me today. I’m not in that kind of form just yet, but hopefully I will continue the process and get in better shape.”
Risky slingshot gets USA gold
Saturday’s action concluded with USA (Austin Kleba, Zach Stoppelmoor, Cooper McLeod) winning Team Sprint gold, ahead of home skaters Du Haonan, Liu Bin and Ning Zhongyan (CHN) and Dutch trio Jenning de Boo, Louis Hollaar, Wesly Dijs.
The US skaters exercised a new technique with the change-up between McLeod and Stoppelmoor.
“They tried this slingshot, which I think ended up being a high-risk, high-reward kind of scenario,” Kleba said.
“We grab each other’s arm and from the second to third leg I pulled him through,” Mcleod said. “It’s the first time we tried it and it worked.”
Team USA are all smiles after a risky change-up strategy paid off in the Team Sprint at the ISU World Cup Speed Skating in Beijing, China © ISU
USA now joins the Netherlands on top of the combined Team Sprint and Mixed Gender Relay ranking after Kimi Goetz and Conor McDermott-Mostowy took bronze behind Dutch duo Femke Kok and Wesly Dijs in the latter event last week.
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Where to watch
Viewers will be able to watch the World Cup sessions via their national broadcaster/channel.
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ISU World Cup Short Track Speed Skating Series events 2023/24:
Nov 10 - 12, 2023 Obihiro /JPN
Nov 17 - 19, 2023 Beijing /CHN
Dec 01 - 03, 2023 Stavanger /NOR
Dec 08 - 10, 2023 Tomaszów Mazowiecki /POL
Jan 26 - 28, 2024 Salt Lake City /USA
Feb 02 - 04, 2024 Québec /CAN
About ISU World Cup Speed Skating Series
The ISU World Cup Speed Skating is a Series of Speed Skating competitions which have taken place annually since 1984. The series comprises six events (four during an Olympic season), with A Division and B Division races. Skaters can earn points at each competition, and the Skater with the most points on a given distance at the end of the series is the World Cup winner in that distance. The four World Cup Competitions held from November to December serve as qualifying events for entry quotas at the ISU European Championships, and the ISU Four Continents Championships. The whole series of six events serves as qualifying events for the World Single Distances Championships, and/or the World Sprint and Allround Speed Skating Championships.
World Cup titles are awarded in 500m, 1000m, 1500m, combined 5000m/10,000m, and Mass Start for men, and 500m, 1000m, 1500m, the combined 3000m/5000m, and Mass Start for women. Both genders also compete for the World Cup titles in Team Pursuit and Team Sprint. New in the 2023/24 program is the Mixed Gender Relay over six laps, in which teams of one man and one woman compete.
(For full explanation of this season’s ISU World Cup (entry rules, formats, qualifying, and prizes: https://www.isu.org/speed-skating/rules/ssk-communications/31562-isu-communication-2587/file)
