Laurent Dubreuil (CAN) seized his first World Cup gold of the season in the second 500m heat of the weekend at Tomaszów Mazowiecki on Sunday. The last two seasons’ World Cup winner edged out Saturday gold medalist and Olympic Champion Gao Tingyu (CHN) by 0.06s. Damian Zurek (POL) took bronze in front of an ecstatic home crowd. In the long distances Patrick Roest (NED) made amends for coming eighth in the 10,000m last week in Stavanger.
Beating the best in the world
In Saturday’s first 500m heat, Dubreuil had finished 0.07s behind Gao to take silver, but on Sunday the top spots on the podium were reversed. The Canadian clocked 34.73s, after Gao and Zurek had set 34.79s and 34.87s respectively in the previous pairing.
Laurent Dubreuil (CAN) reversed the result of Saturday's 500m to take gold ahead of Heat 1 winner Gao Tingyu (CHN) © ISU
“My start was a bit slower today,” Dubreuil commented. “But the lap felt a bit better.
“The last three races, Gao’s been second, first, and second. If I beat his time after his pair, I was pretty confident that I could at least get on the podium and maybe even win.
“Every time I’m paired against him, I think of my daughter, because my daughter loves Yuma [pair-mate Yuma Murakami (JPN)]. She must be so excited. I can imagine her in the living room watching the race. It’s just a special, fun feeling.”
Beating Gao felt special too. Dubreuil had missed him last season, when Olympic Champion Gao was sidelined because of injury trouble.
“He’s a formidable skater, I’m happy I got to beat him today and I’m excited to race against him after Christmas again,” said Dubreuil.
“The level [in the 500m] is incredible. We’re welcoming back Gao on the circuit. He’s the Olympic Champion, he’s got the fastest start of all time, and I like to skate against the best skaters in the world.
“Last year I was at my best and I regretted that I didn’t get to skate against him. This year I have the chance to do it and today I was able to beat him, I’m really happy about that.”
Double World Cup-winner Dubreuil welcomed Gao's return from injury, and Damian Zurek (POL, right) relished his home-town bronze © ISU
Zurek also felt special about his career second individual World Cup medal.
“I’m really happy. This is my home town, my whole family was here, my friends from school, the whole village was cheering. It’s great to skate in front of them.”
Tomaszów Mazowiecki may not be an ISU World Cup venue that often in the future because a brand new Indoor Ice Arena is being built in Zakopane, Poland. Despite the fact that it’s not in his hometown, Zurek is looking forward to the new rink.
“I think it will be very fast ice because the Arena is situated at high elevation, and it’s not too far away from here, only five hours by car.”
Wataru Morishige (JPN) retained his World Cup lead, despite his worst result of the season. This season’s four-time 500m winner finished seventh in 34.97s.
Roest back home in 5000m
In the 5000m, Patrick Roest (NED) took on World Cup leader Davide Ghiotto (ITA). Before their race, Hallgeir Engebråten (NOR) had stopped the clock in a time of 6 minutes and 23.84s, the fastest so far.
Roest took off cautiously but managed to accelerate in the second part of the race to finish in 6:18.01. Ghiotto was not able to counter Roest’s attack and eventually had to settle for bronze in 6:24.66, behind Engebråten.
Patrick Roest (NED) went head-to-head with Davide Ghiotto (ITA) in their heat; the two finished first and third on the podium © ISU
“Because Sander Eitrem (NOR) withdrew, I faced Ghiotto and that’s what I like,” Roest said.
“In Beijing [at the second World Cup against pair-mate Sverre Lunde Pedersen (NOR)], I had to do it all alone, but this was a man-to-man battle and that’s the beauty of the sport.
“I started a little slow because I had to hold back on one of the first back stretches. Therefore the lap times went up quickly. I just had to trust that I would be able to accelerate at the end and I managed.”
For Hallgeir Engebråten (NOR, left), the silver medal represented a reward for his hard work in keeping his skating career alive © ISU
Ghiotto didn’t have an answer. “Patrick is just in a different league in the 5000m, because today he had maybe 5-6 seconds on us,” said the Italian.
“It’s normal for him, but for us it’s not so easy to skate 29-second laps in the second part of the race. Sometimes I try to take a bit of a gap in the first part of the race and not lose too much in the second part, but today it was impossible.”
For Engebråten, his silver medal was a reward for being persistent, even though the doctors told him he would never be able to skate any more last year.
“It has been quite a roller coaster,” he explained. “Last year around this time the doctors said I couldn’t skate any more because my health was too bad due to trouble with my asthma.
“It’s been quite a journey. It started right after New Year last year, with 14 days totally off the ice to rest my lungs and then slow training for four weeks.
“But for me, it was never an option to quit the sport. I’m too young and I love the sport. I really tried and worked the whole summer and spring to find good solutions and we’re really close to perfect now.
“It’s the way I train and it’s the medication. Last year they just put on more and more medicine and in the end it was too much, so we quit everything. We started from scratch with another medicine and it worked out pretty well.”
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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
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