Canada's Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu celebrates Team Sprint gold — and a world record — in front of a home crowd in Calgary @ISU
“It's a world record, it's a gold medal, we obviously feel amazing,” said Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu (CAN) with a big smile after he came off the ice a Team Sprint champion with teammates Anders Johnson and Laurent Dubreuil. The Canadian men followed the path of their female teammates, who also took gold in the Team Sprint on Thursday. Before the spectacular team events brought the first day of the ISU World Single Distances Championships to a close, Patrick Roest (NED) retained his 5000m title, beating long distance World Cup winner Davide Ghiotto (ITA).
Record-breaking sprints
The men’s Team Sprint event was one of the most exciting speed skating races of the season, with two teams topping the 2017 world record of 1:17.31 set by Dubreil, Vincent de Haître and Gilmore Junio (CAN).
The Netherlands started the record-breaking run in the first pairing, when Janno Botman, Jenning de Boo and Tim Prins (NED) stopped the clock at 1:17.17.
Canada was up next and managed to beat the fresh Dutch world record by two thousands of a second.
Gélinas-Beaulieu said it was almost a perfect race.
“We needed to stay in our mindset and not be distracted by that (world record). The execution was almost perfect. In every moment of the race, we did exactly the thing we had to do. Anders gave me a good challenge at first, but still enough so I could close the gap. He really wakes me up, the sprinter side of me, and I was like, I cannot let these guys go.”
Middle-distance specialist Gélinas-Beaulieu didn’t let his teammates down after sprinter Dubreuil pushed him into the final lap with a well-executed slingshot. Dubreuil explained:
“Every team does this slingshot now, and it's clearly faster. We had never done it properly before today. We tried to do it before, but I had to wait for Antoine a little bit because he was not quite right behind me, but today he was right behind me, and the amount of speed you give to the other person is incredible.”
Canada skated against Norway’s Henrik Fagerli Rukke, Bjørn Magnussen and Håvard Lorentzen, who ended up third in 1:17.31. China was fourth, Poland fifth and USA sixth, all within .23 seconds of each other.
Norway finished third, just .14 seconds behind Canada, in the Team Sprint on Thursday @ISU
Dubreuil looked at the scoreboard in disbelief.
“Today, the level was unbelievable. Sixth place still skated 1:17:40, that’s the seventh-fastest time ever. Nobody had come close to our old record before today.”
Canada couldn’t have started the tournament any better, Dubreuil said.
“It's already a good World Championships, with two world titles and Isabel’s second place in the 3000m. It's a great first day, and there's more to come.”
The Dutch youngsters — Botman is 23 while De Boo and Prins are 20 — were gutted. De Boo said:
“A world record … that’s very frustrating. On the one hand, we get away with our career first World Championships medal, and on the other hand we miss the title and the world record by a 0.002 margin."
Netherlands were edged off the top of the podium after setting a world record in the Team Sprint in Calgary @ISU
Prins, who previously skated the Team Sprint as a junior, said he really enjoyed the event.
“Skating is a traditional sport with individual events, but I like this event, and I think we really put it on the map today, with six countries within a .23-second margin.”
Roest defies Ghiotto’s challenge
Before the team sprinters entertained the crowd, Roest celebrated his second consecutive 5000m world title in 6:07.28. The Dutchman edged out Ghiotto by 1.33 seconds, while Sander Eitrem (NOR) was third in 6:09.
Patrick Roest found his parents in the crowd after winning the 5000m title at the ISU World Single Distances Championships in Calgary @ISU
Roest skated in the penultimate pairing, after Ghiotto and Eitrem has set their times, and he said it was helpful.
“It was good that I skated after the others. I knew what Ghiotto had done. I had a faster opener and after that I lost a little bit on him in every lap, but I trusted my last lap because he skated 30.1 seconds in the final lap.”
Yet, the Italian was also happy with his performance.
“It was a very good race. I was very nervous before the race because it’s a World Championships and I skated on the podium every time this year in the World Cup. I tried to stay in a flat race, not to go down in the second part. It’s just the last lap in 30 seconds that was not good for me. But I kept it flat for the most part, so it’s my best 5000m race this season or maybe in my career.
“I knew the time of Eitrem and tried to stay a little behind him and I remembered my last race against Ted-Jan Bloemen (CAN) two weeks ago in Quebec, and I needed to keep him behind but not go too fast because I needed to finish the race.”
Silver medalist Davide Ghiotto is the favorite to win Sunday's 10,000m race at the ISU World Single Distances Championships @ISU
Eitrem was content, too.
“I thought I was going to miss the podium with 6:09, but I finally made it and that was my goal. I set out for 6:08 or 6:09, but I don’t think too much about the time, just skate a good race.”
Sander Eitrem skated to a third-place finish on Thursday in the 5000m race @ISU
Roest, Ghiotto and Eitrem will face each other again in the 10,000m on Sunday, when the Italian will defend his title. Roest is looking forward to the rematch.
“Ghiotto gave me a good challenge today and I’m looking forward to challenge him on Sunday, when he will be the favorite.”
Program
Thursday 15 February:
3000m Women
5000m Men
Team Sprint Women
Team Sprint Men
Friday 16 February:
Team Pursuit Women
Team Pursuit Men
500m Women
500m Men
Saturday 17 February
1000m Women
1000m Men
Mass Start Women Final
Mass Start Men Final
Sunday 18 February
5000m Women
10000m Men
1500m Women
1500m Men
