POSTED: Monday February 2nd 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Essent ISU World Cup Speed Skating –Erfurt, Germany
The seventh of nine events in this season’s Essent ISU World Cup Speed Skating series concluded on a high note on Sunday in the German town of Erfurt.
The three day event included racing over the 500, 1000, 1500 meter distances and Team Pursuit for both men and ladies as well as the ladies 3000 and men’s 5000 meter distance.
Ladies
On the 500m, the only challenge for Jenny Wolf (GER), who was already certain of winning the World Cup, was to improve her own track record, which stood at 37.88. She succeeded majestically on Friday with 37.58. Both Sang-Hwa Lee and Beixing Wang were absent. Still, two Asian skaters completed the podium, Chinese Jing Yu and Peiyu Jin.
On the second day, Wolf won again, this time in 37.85. Again, Jing Yu was second, in 38.00, a personal best time. Dutch Annette Gerritsen, fourth a day earlier, was now third with 38.28. Wolf has now 1085 points; Gerritsen moved past Lee (590 points) and is now second with 630 points.
On Friday, the ladies skated the 1500m. Anni Friesinger from Germany, who had a knee-operation last summer, skated her first 1500m this season. She crowned her return with an impressive win in 1:56.90, over a second faster than her compatriot Daniela Anschütz-Thoms who finished in 1:58.13. Third was Ireen Wüst (NED), who struggled a bit in the beginning of this season, but seems to get back in shape in time for the World Championships next week.
On the 3000m, Saturday, Daniela Anschütz-Thoms finished in second place again before her home audience, in 4:05.14. Behind her finished Renate Groenewold (NED), but leader in the rankings Martina Sablíková (CZE) took the win, 4:03.66. She leads now with 360 points; Claudia Pechstein (GER), who only finished 6th is now over 100 points behind her, she has now 255 just llike Daniela Anschütz-Thoms.
In the 1000m for ladies, Canadians Nesbitt and Groves are leading the rankings, but today they were not even close to the podium. Anni Friesinger, made her comeback last week with a sixth and second place, and just like she won the 1500m on Friday, she now also won the 1000m in 1:15.52 with strong 27.7 and 29.7 laps. No Canadian on the podium this time, but two Chinese ladies completed the podium. Jing Yu was second, like in the 500m, with 1:16.41. Peiyu Jin just missed second place, with 1:16.42. Christine Nesbitt still leads with 541 points, second is Kristina Groves with 462, third Laurine van Riessen (NED) with 436, who by a fourth place this weekend overtook Shannon Rempel (CAN) in the ranking.
In the Team Pursuit, Martina Sáblíková was the motor for the Czech team, and together with Andrea Jirku and Karolina Erbanova they managed a national record time of 3:05.32 and topped the podium. Behind them, the Russians finished second, 3:05.80, and the Polish team was third, 3:06.26. Japan, USA, China, and Germany all finished not slower than 3:07.92. As this was the final Team Pursuit World Cup, teams got extra points, and this gave the World Cup to the Czech Republic, with 235 points, second is USA with 205, third are the Dutch with 200 points.
Men
Keiichiro Nagashima (JPN) and Fengtong Yu (CHN) were both in serious contention to win the World Cup. The two were paired in the final pair on Friday, and Fengtong Yu had the fastest opening. Yet they came side by side out of the final turn. It was Fengtong Yu who won this time by a breathtakingly small margin with 35.03. The time of Keiichiro Nagashima was 35.04. In third place it was Tucker Fredricks from the USA in 35.12. Unfortunately, Finnish Pekka Koskela, one of the winners this season, had to abort his race due to a hamstring injury and could not compete any more this weekend.
The next day, Tucker Fredricks won, in a faster time: 34.91. Also Fengtong Yu out-skated Nagashima again, 35.00 against 35.38. Nagashima just missed the podium, as Dutchman Jan Smeekens finally got it right and skated 35.26.
Dutch hero Sven Kramer won the 5000m in 6:16.02, ten seconds below the previous track record of Carl Verheijen. Håvard Bøkko (NOR), last year’s World Cup winner, managed another second place, finished in 6:22.37, and third in 6:23.45 was Bob de Jong (NED), who kicked Wouter Olde Heuvel (6:23.72) off the podium with a strong final lap.
The 1500m is usually the distance with the most excitement and a row of people who could win, both sprinters and allrounders. World record holder Denny Morrison (CAN) had not performed well in the 1500m this season, but this time he was the fastest of everything. He opened 23.83, and had a 25.9 and a 26.9 lap before closing his race with a 28.6, thus skating a track record of 1:45.32. One after the other attacked his time in vain. 19-year-old Trevor Marsicano beat his fellow-American Chad Hedrick in a strong race, finishing in 1:46.00, though losing a bit to Morrison in every lap. In the next pair, Sven Kramer and Olympic champion Enrico Fabris (ITA) did not manage to take back in the last lap the time lost in the first 1000 meters, and both even missed the podium. Shani Davis (USA) finally opened fast, had a 25.8 lap, but then 27.2 and only 29.3, missing not only Morrison’s time in that last lap, but also Marsicano’s, who could celebrate his first podium finish in a World Cup distance. Thus Davis finished third in 1:46.25. Håvard Bøkko, placing fifth this day, is now leading with 255 points. He replaced Mark Tuitert at the top, who almost fell twice and placed last, missing precious points, dropping to third in the ranking with 216 points. Davis has 220 and climbed to second place overall. Erben Wennemars, who had gathered 190 points, will not skate any more this season, due to the injury sustained at the World Sprint Championships.
Shani Davis won his fourth 1000m race this season as he beat Denny Morrison, who won the last two races. With 1:08.40 and 1:08.78, both beating the track record, they increased their lead in the ranking with 690 and 600 points. They were the only two skaters below 1:09 this weekend. The battle for the third place was between the only other four skaters who were below 1:10. Three Dutchmen, Jan Bos, Simon Kuipers and Stefan Groothuis (for them this was qualification for the Essent ISU World Single Distances Championships) and Trevor Marsicano. The young American could not repeat another podium finish and with a personal best 1:09.16 finished in fourth place. Jan Bos was the strongest Dutchman with1:09.03. In the ranking, Stefan Groothuis is still safely third with 500 points, then follows Simon Kuipers with 416.
In the men’s Team Pursuit the leaders in the ranking, Canada, won in 3:46.03, gathering 310 points and winning the World Cup. 2006 Olympic Champions, Italy, followed closely with 3:46.56, jumping up to second place overall with 220 points, ahead of Japan with 210. Third was Norway, who needed a good result to qualify for the World Championships. Japan, Germany, the USA and the Netherlands followed. Together with Sweden, these are the teams which qualified for the World Championships.
Essent ISU World Cup Speed Skating –Erfurt (GER) - Medal Winners
500m Ladies
|
1 |
Jenny Wolf |
GER |
37.58 TR |
|
2 |
Jing Yu |
CHN |
38.18 |
|
3 |
Peiyu Jin |
CHN |
38.30 |
500m Ladies
|
1 |
Jenny Wolf |
GER |
37.85 |
|
2 |
Jing Yu |
CHN |
38.00 |
|
3 |
Annette Gerritsen |
NED |
38.28 |
500m Men
|
1 |
Fengtong Yu |
CHN |
35.03 TR |
|
2 |
Keiichiro Nagashima |
JPN |
35.04 |
|
3 |
Tucker Fredricks |
USA |
35.21 |
500m Men
|
1 |
Tucker Fredricks |
USA |
34.91 TR |
|
2 |
Fengtong Yu |
CHN |
35.00 |
|
3 |
Jan Smeekens |
NED |
35.26 |
1000m Ladies
|
1 |
Anni Friesinger |
GER |
1:15.61 |
|
2 |
Jing Yu |
CHN |
1:16.41 |
|
3 |
Peiyu Jin |
CHN |
1:16.42 |
1000m Men
|
1 |
Shani Davis |
USA |
1:08.40 TR |
|
2 |
Denny Morrison |
CAN |
1:08.78 |
|
3 |
Jan Bos |
NED |
1:09.03 |
1500m Ladies
|
1 |
Anni Friesinger |
GER |
1:56.90 |
|
2 |
Daniela Anschütz-Thoms |
GER |
1:58.13 |
|
3 |
Ireen Wüst |
NED |
1:58.54 |
1500m Men
|
1 |
Denny Morrison |
CAN |
1:45.32 TR |
|
2 |
Trevor Marsicano |
USA |
1:46.00 |
|
2 |
Shani Davis |
USA |
1:46.25 |
3000m Ladies
|
1 |
Martina Sáblíková |
CZE |
4:03.66 TR |
|
2 |
Daniela Anschütz-Thoms |
GER |
4:05.14 |
|
3 |
Renate Groenewold |
NED |
4:06.60 |
5000m Men
|
1 |
Sven Kramer |
NED |
6:16.02 TR |
|
2 |
Håvard Bøkko |
NOR |
6:22.37 |
|
3 |
Bob de Jong |
NED |
6:23.45 |
Team Pursuit Ladies
|
1 |
Martina Sáblíková, Andrea Jirku and Karolina Erbanova |
CZE |
3:05.32 |
|
2 |
Alla Shabanova, Yekaterina Shikhova, Galina Likhachova |
RUS |
3:05.80 |
|
3 |
Kataryna Wójcicka, Luiza Zlotkowska, Natalia Czerwonka |
POL |
3:06.26 |
# # #
Keywords · ISU · Essent ISU World Cup Speed Skating · Erfurt · Germany
Name: Devra Pitt-getaz
Organization: ISU
Email:
Phone: +41 21 612 66 66
URL: http://www.isu.org/
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