Essent ISU World Cup Speed Skating – Hamar (NOR)
The sixth of 9 Essent ISU World Cup Speed Skating events
concluded in Hamar (NOR) on Sunday. Both sprinters and allrounders
came for the three-day event which included the long distance
that is so popular in Norway.
Ladies
There were two 500m races. The first one on Friday, where
German World Champion Jenny Wolf skated the fastest time ever
skated in Europe, 37.52. The second one on Saturday, where
Jenny Wolf equaled that first time and again clocked 37.52.
Both times, Korean Sang-Hwa Lee finished in second place.
First she had 38.07, then 38.19. A Dutch girl finished third,
on Friday it was Marianne Timmer with 38.23, on Saturday Annette
Gerritsen with 38.33. It would be hard for Wolf to lose the
World Cup. She gathered 960 points, second is Annette Gerritsen
with 588 points, then Beixing Wang, who is in China for the
Chinese Winter Games and keeps her 520 points. Sang-Hwa Lee
is fourth with 474 points.
In the 1000m, German Anni Friesinger won with a track record
of 1:14.81. Canadian Christine Nesbitt was second in 1:15.84,
skating a pair before Friesinger. In the final pair Ireen
Wüst of the Netherlands was unable to come close to Friesinger’s
speed in the opening laps. She finished 0.01 second behind
Nesbitt in third place: 1:15.85. After two second places and
three wins, Anni Friesinger is well in the lead with 660 points,
Chiara Simionato kept her second position with 440, and then
Christine Nesbitt, with 370 points, little ahead of Wüst
with 352 points.
In the 1500m, Anni Friesinger did not participate, but there
was an impressive win of Ireen Wüst. Her 1:54.64 was
over two seconds faster than the next best time, of her team
mate Paulien van Deutekom, who had first broken the old track
record to a time of 1:56.84. Christine Nesbitt skated 1:57.14
and finished in third. Nesbitt finished on every 1500m podium
this year, and keeps the lead in the World Cup ranking with
420 points, Groves is second with 350 and Friesinger third
with 280. Anschütz-Thoms (238) and Wüst (218) follow.
In the 5000m ladies, Martina Sábliková (CZE)
skated against Claudia Pechstein, the second ranked skater
here, with Groenewold out of shape and not present. The Czech
world champion on this distance went out from the start and
left Pechstein behind. The German, multi Olympic Champion,
raced her own race. Both finished faster than the former track
record of Gunda Niemann. Pechstein had 6:56.57 and Sábliková
6:51.83, the fastest time on a lowland rink. The last Olympic
champion, Clara Hughes (CAN), finished in third place with
7:01.44. Sábliková is still safely in the lead,
480 points, Pechstein is second with 320 points and Clara
Hughes moved up to third with 285, followed by Groves, Anschütz
and Groenewold.
Men
In the 500m men, Jeremy Wotherspoon (CAN) was in great form.
He won both races. The first day, he set the track record
at 34.55, but said it could be a few tenths faster had he
not made a few minor mistakes. The next day, he was indeed
so much faster with 34.31. Keiichiro Nagashima (JPN) followed
on day one with 34.74, Finnish Pekka Koskela skated 34.77.
The second day, Korean Joon Mun finished in second place with
34.75 and the other fast Fin, Mika Poutala, was third with
34.88. Kang-Seok Lee finished besides the podium, but still
keeps a lead of 712 points over Jeremy Wotherspoon who has
600. Joon Mun moved to third place with 540, placing world
sprint champioin Kyou-Hyuk Lee with 534 points off the podium
for the time being.
Only in the 1000m men, in absence of World Cup leader Shani
Davis, the track record was not broken, as it was set on a
sharp 1:08.38 by Davis here last year. Of the favorites today,
Wotherspoon was the first to race, and after a flashing start
with 16.17 and then 40,85, the last lap was a bit troublesome.
His time was 1:08.59, at that time the best. In the next race,
Dutchman Simon Kuipers had his turn. Starting slower, but
finishing very strong, gaining a second back on Wotherspoon
in that one lap, to finish in 1:08.58, leading position, just
0.01 faster than Wotherspoon. In the final pair, Wotherspoon’s
countryman Denny Morrison and Kyou-Hyuk Lee knew what to do.
Lee started out 16.37, giving Morrison a target. In the final
lap, Morrison squeezed out a 26.6, finishing in 1:08.57, doing
to Kuipers what Kuipers did to Wotherspoon. “I’ve
never seen it that close”, commented Kuipers afterwards.
“Each of us can win, that is so thrilling!” Shani
Davis still leads in the ranking with 490 points, second is
Morrison with 456, then Jan Bos (NED) with 365 points.
In the 1500m men, Sven Kramer, who won last time, set a strong
time, faster than in Heerenveen, with 1:44.75. But Simon Kuipers
attacked that time, opening faster, losing a bit in the pre-last
lap, but nevertheless posting a 28.0 final lap like Kramer,
and beating him, by the smallest possible margin, finishing
in 1:44.74. Third was Denny Morrison, 1:44.82. Wennemars leads
in the ranking despite his sixth place in Hamar, with 341
points, followed by Kuipers, 314, Tuitert, 268 points, and
Bøkko, 260.
In the 10,000m, Håvard Bøkko (NOR), winner of
the World Cup 10,000m in Kolomna, won also this race. He had
to skate alone, as his pairmate had to call in sick. With
a schedule of 31 laps, he took the victory, over Chad Hedrick
from the USA, who in an earlier pair duelled with Bob de Jong
(NED) in a fascinating race which climaxed at the end when
they tried to outskate each other by throwing in sub-30 laps.
Hedrick managed finally to keep De Jong behind him, and finished
in 13:11.20. Bob de Jong finished in 13:12,71, also on the
podium. Yet, he was not the fastest Dutchman. Mark Ooijevaar,
last year’s winner at the Universiade in Turin, made
his World Cup debut and won early in the morning the B-Division
with 13:12.60, then track record.
Bøkko keeps the lead. He has now 400 points. Kramer
has 280, and Bob de Jong is following closely with 278 points.
The Vikingship has become the fastest rink in Europe. There
were track records, on all distances except the 1000m men.
There were 28 personal bests, including a NR for Spain of
14.35,05 (men, Asier Peña Iturria) and Belgium, 7.54,16
(ladies, Nele Armee).
Next weekend the allrounders have an outdoor World Cup before
their World Championships, in Baselga di Pinè, Italy.
The sprinters will be back in Inzell in a few weeks.
Essent ISU World Cup Speed Skating – Hamar
(NOR) - Medal Winners
500m Ladies Friday
1 Jenny Wolf GER 37.52 TR
2 Sang-Hwa Lee KOR 38.07
3 Marianne Timmer NED 38.23
500m Men Friday
1 Jeremy Wotherspoon CAN 34.55 TR
2 Keiichiro Nagashima JPN 34.74
3 Pekka Koskela FIN 34.77
500m Ladies Saturday
1 Jenny Wolf GER 37.52 = TR
2 Sang-Hwa Lee KOR 38.19
3 Annette Gerritsen NED 38.33
500m Men Saturday
1 Jeremy Wotherspoon CAN 34.31 TR
2 Joon Mun KOR 34.75
3 Mika Poutala FIN 34.88
1000m Ladies Sunday
1 Anni Friesinger GER 1:14.81 TR
2 Christine Nesbitt CAN 1:15.84
3 Ireen Wüst NED 1:15.85
1000m Men Sunday
1 Denny Morrison CAN 1:08.57
2 Simon Kuipers NED 1:08.58
3 Jeremy Wotherspoon CAN 1:08.59
1500m Ladies Friday
1 Ireen Wüst NED 1:54.65 TR
2 Paulien van Deutekom NED 1:56.84
3 Christine Nesbitt CAN 1:57.14
1500m Men Saturday
1 Simon Kuipers NED 1:44.74 TR
2 Sven Kramer NED 1:44.75
2 Denny Morrison CAN 1:44.82
5000m Ladies Saturday
1 Martina Sáblíková CZE 6:51.83 TR
2 Claudia Pechstein GER 6:56.57
3 Clara Hughes CAN 7:01.44
10,000m Men Sunday
1 Håvard Bøkko NOR 13:09.61 TR
2 Chad Hedrick USA 13:11.20
3 Bob de Jong NED 13:12.71
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