ISU Essent World Single Distance Championships – Heerenveen (NED)
The season ended, later than usual, in a warm and sunny Heerenveen, with the World Single Distance Speed Skating Championships. Only the best skaters of the season competed in the Olympic distances. The winners were Sang-Hwa Lee, KOR), Christine Nesbitt, CAN), Martina Sáblíkova (CZE),
Thursday
Defending champion in the 3000m, Ireen Wüst (NED) said she had never entered a tournament with as strange a preparation like this one: she had her last 3k at the World Allround Championhsips and her last competition was at the World Cup in Heerenveen, because she had the flu for four days during the Berlin World Cup weekend. Struggling to get back in shape she did not know what to expect, started ok but could not maintain the speed she wanted and her lap times dropped gradually. 4:04.87 was her finishing time that even Claudia Pechstein, in her race against Stephanie Beckert (both GER) could not reach; Beckert finished with a strong 31.9 lap and overtook Wüst in the last lap, finishing 4:04.09. Pechstein finished in 4:04.99. Then Sábliková raced in the last pair, and in true form the Czech European champion who had won all races this season, won this one as well. Valkenburg (NED) was her pairmatte and started fast, but that was all she had and dropping in all laps after that, finished in 4:09.53. Sábliková took the title in 4:01.88. There were pbs for Linda de Vries (4:06.33, fifth), Olga Graf (RUS) and Natalia Czerwonka (POL).
Friday
In the 1500m for the Ladies, Sábliková did not race. Linda de Vries (NED) surprised again after her personal best in the 3000m. She had the fastest finishing lap in the field with 31.5, and her finishing time was 1:57.08. Most skaters did not even reach a time below 1:58, but De Vries’ pair mate, World Record holder Cindy Klassen, who raced to 1:57.30. But the two skaters who divided the winnings all this season still had to skate. Ireen Wüst, title defender, had a good race with 1:56.40. Eventually Nesbitt won in 1:56.07, gaining almost a second on Wüst in the opening 300, and built on that to even more in the first two laps but had to slow down considerably in the final lap, still having enough of an advantage over Wüst to take her first title in this 1500m. Ireen was happy regardless: “I fought for all my worth and my time was good considering the high air pressure. Nesbitt had a fabulous opening, but I was still close to the gold. I’m proud to be the number two in the world”. Nesbitt said this win was special: “I never won this distance, and never knew I could perform in it.”
Saturday
Nesbitt was the great favourite for the 1000m, a distance she is undefeated this season. Pair 9 featured two Chinese ladies, World Sprint Champion Jing Yu and Hong Zhang, who had gained bronze at the World Sprints. Yu reached 1:15.98, Zhang 1:16.51. These two times were far better than the best times in this event so far, 1:17.12 by Brittany Bowe (USA). Yekaterina Shikhova in pair 10 managed to stay ahead of Zhang with 0.01 second; in pair ten Heather Richardson (USA) and Wüst were again faster than Shikhova with 1:16.30 and 1:16.33 but could not touch the time of Yu. Finally, Margot Boer (NED) was pair mate of Christine Nesbitt and started faster than she had ever done, in 17.89. Nesbitt, with 18.21, later said: “I was panicking a bit in the first 200m, Margot scared me off at the start.” But soon Nesbitt composed herself: “I got more relaxed because I already won the 1500m”; a lap of 27.4 was really strong, Boer had a 28.0 lap knowing she was racing the best 1000m skater. Nesbitt continued with a 29.4 lap and won in 1:15.16, Boer was exactly a second slower, but that was still good enough for bronze behind Yu. Nesbitt: “It was not the most beautiful skate, but I was very powerful. I had to work really hard for my podium places in both the World Sprint and the World Allround championships, but these are my distances, and I was redeeming myself here.”
In the 5000m Ladies the defending champion and World Cup winner Sábliková was the main favourite and usually her battle is with Beckert; the podium turned out exactly the same as the year before. Sábliková was the first of the favourites to race. She set the second time ever skated in Thialf, 6:50.46. Then Beckert raced with 40-year-old Claudia Pechstein, who won her first Olympic medal in 1992 in this distance. Beckert could not keep her lap times as even as Sábliková, and finished in 6:56.64, leaving Pechstein behind her; she raced to 7:04.01. good enough for the bronze medal, her twelfth medal at the 5000m in the World Distance Championships. In fourth, with the only personal best time of the day, came Olga Graf from Russia, with 7:10.22.
Sunday Sunday was the day for the 500m races. Unlike at the Olympics, here both 500m races are on the same day. After four titles in a row for Jenny Wolf (GER), this year she did not make the podium. The first race was won by Sang-Hwa Lee in 38.03, Thijsje Oenema (NED) followed with 38.16 and Heather Richardson (USA) with 38.27 managed to beat Christine Nesbitt with 0.01 for the third place in spite of a broken spring in her clap mechanism at the back stretch. Karolina Erbanová, second at the Junior World Championships this year, finished surprisingly in 5th, ahead of the new world record holder Jing Yu. After a less perfect second race she was very happy with rank 8. Wolf had a poor race and was only 10th. But in the second race, Wolf skated better, 38.24, and took the lead with 76.78 in total. But Yu also had something to make up. She skated 37.80, a great time for Thialf, and took the lead with 76.12 points. Richardson skated 38.22, winning a bit more on Nesbitt, but both dropped behind Yu in points. Then Oenema and Lee made the final pair; Lee had the best opening, 10.25, and continued strong to 37.66, only 0.06 above the track record. It brought her to the winning total of 75.69. Oenema had a race that was even slightly faster than the first race and her 38.13 gave her the bronze medal with 76.29 points.
The Dutch Ladies won the Team Pursuit with a smart and well-performed plan. The Canadian team won silver and the Polish Ladies, bronze winners at the Olympics with a slightly different team, won bronze here, not too far ahead of Russia, Germany and Korea. The winning time was a track record, 2:59.70.
