POSTED: Sunday February 15th 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Essent ISU World Cup Speed Skating –Heerenveen (NED)
Essent ISU World Cup Speed Skating –Heerenveen (NED) - Medal Winners
The last World Cup this season in Europe took place in Heerenveen (NED), where the last spots for the World Cup final, in March, Salt Lake City, were to be earned on the 1500 meter and tickets to the World Single Distance Championships in Vancouver on the 5000m for ladies and the 10,000m for men, a distance that won’t be skated in the World Cup final. The Russian team did not participate, but there were two debutants from countries that rarely have long track skaters. Both skaters set a national record in the 10,000m: 14.15.29 for Australian Joshua Lose and a strong 13.39.42 for Shane Dobbin from New Zealand.
Ladies
The Ladies started with the 5000m. In the B-division, the winning time was surprisingly fast: Dutch Elma de Vries had clocked 7:02.48, a personal best. With this time, she qualified for the World Single Distance championships.
With two pairs to go, Norwegian Maren Haugli had come closest to that time, with 7:05.85, when Kristina Groves (CAN) and Stephanie Beckert (GER) were paired. The young German
had first surprised on the 5000m in Moscow, in November, where she had taken third place and also reached the podium at the World Allround Championships. She managed to keep even and fast lap times and reached a new personal best of 7:01.33, overtaking her pairmate with three laps to go. Groves finished in 7:05.08. Both times were good enough for the podium, as of the skaters in the final pair, Dutch Groenewold finished in sixth place, and only the leader in the ranking, world record holder Martina Sáblíková (CZE) reached a faster time: 6:59.80, her 12th World Cup win. The World Cup is now definitely hers, as her 460 points cannot be overtaken, with 150 points for the winner in the final World Cup. Six skaters will battle for the silver and bronze: Groves moved to second place overall with 270 points, Groenewold has 260, Pechstein and Anschütz both have 255, Beckert 250, Hozumi 210.
Anni Friesinger skated only her second 1500 meter race this season, but that didn’t mean that she was not completely back. She had a strong race, finishing in 1:57.48. At that point only Polish Katarzyna Wójcicka had been below 2 minutes with 1:59.03. For Wójcicka, that would mean the fifth place. Ireen Wüst was faster than her with 1:58.77, but just missed the podium. In the final pair, the fast Canadian ladies Kristina Groves and Christine Nesbitt were paired. Nesbitt skated away with a fast 25.53, continued with a 28.6, gaining almost a second over Friesinger and losing a little with her next lap. However, Friesinger’s last lap had been 32.2, and Nesbitt struggled a bit there, and finished with a 33.0 lap. This brought her to 1:57.58, only 0.1 second behind Friesinger. Groves was third, with 1:58.40. Groves still leads, with 376 points. Absent Daniela Anschütz (280 points) was passed in the ranking by Christine Nesbitt, who has gathered 335 points.
Men
In the 1500m, the competition is still exciting. Håvard Bøkko (NOR) was the leader in the ranking, followed by Shani Davis and Mark Tuitert, but several others had their chances as well. Chad Hedrick managed a good 1:46.11, and none of the Dutch skaters – although four of them finished top-8 – was faster. Olympic Champion Enrico Fabris (ITA) was paired with Trevor Marsicano, the up-and-coming American who reached the podium in Erfurt and at the World Allrounds. Marsicano took the lead from the start and had a race comparable to Hedrick’s. In a final lap of 27.7, Fabris overtook him through last inner and finished in 1:45.88. Marsicano’s time was 1:46.09, which brought him to the podium as well.
Erben Wennemars couldn’t skate due to injury, but he saw the serious attack on his track record of 1:45.19 by Shani Davis in the final pair. Davis was faster until 1100 meters. However, the focus of Davis on sprinting had made him less strong in the last lap of the 1500m, and he lost too much with 28.7, and had to settle for a winning time of 1.45,40, leaving Wennemars’ track record intact. It was Davis’ 25th World Cup victory. Bøkko did not gather enough points this day to keep his lead, and dropped with 273 points to second overall, Shani Davis is the new leader with 320 points. The final will be exciting with Marsicano 254 points, Tuitert 252, Fabris 249, Kramer 229 and Groothuis 218 points.
There was a gap between two groups in the A-division of the 10,000m. Six skaters were below 13:20 in the A-division (as well as the winner of the B-division); and the other A-skaters were slower than 13:32. The fast group consisted of all the Dutch plus Enrico Fabris and Håvard Bøkko. Fabris reached 13:14.42 easily, with some really fast laptimes in the last five laps. Then Bob de Jong and Carl Verheijen (both NED) were paired and were below Fabris’ schedule. Bob de Jong won that pair in 13:09.16, but Verheijen, who was still a second ahead of Fabris, lost two seconds to him in the final lap and finished in 13:15.30. De Jong was now certain of the podium. Then Kramer and Bøkko skated together, they had the fastest opening laps of the field. The Norwegian seemed tired of his efforts last week, and let Kramer skate away from him. Still, he skated a very even race, and managed to keep the advantage to De Jong that he took in the first lap. Sven Kramer won in 13:03.52 and established a firmer lead with 400 points. Bøkko finished in second place with 13:07.93 and is also second overall with 365 points. De Jong was not only third in the distance, but also overall, 350 points, a 65 point lead over Carl Verheijen, Fabris follows with 278.
Essent ISU World Cup Speed Skating –Heerenveen (NED) - Medal Winners
1500m Ladies
|
1 |
Anni Friesinger |
GER |
1:57.48 |
|
2 |
Christine Nesbitt |
CAN |
1:57.58 |
|
3 |
Kristina Groves |
CAN |
1:58.40 |
1500m Men
|
1 |
Shani Davis |
USA |
1:45.40 |
|
2 |
Enrico Fabris |
ITA |
1:45.88 |
|
2 |
Trevor Marsicano |
USA |
1:46.09 |
5000m Ladies
|
1 |
Martina Sáblíková |
CZE |
6:59.08 |
|
2 |
Stephanie Beckert |
GER |
7:01.33 P |
|
3 |
Kristina Groves |
CAN |
7:05.08 |
10,000m Men
|
1 |
Sven Kramer |
NED |
13:03.51 |
|
2 |
Håvard Bøkko |
NOR |
13:07.93 |
|
3 |
Bob de Jong |
NED |
13:09.16 |
For details of the Essent ISU World Cup, including complete results see www.isu.org .
# # #
Keywords · ISU · speed skating
Name: Devra Pitt-getaz
Organization: ISU
Email:
Phone: +41 21 612 66 66
URL: http://www.isu.org/
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