Christine Nesbitt (CAN) was crowned ISU World Sprint Speed Skating Champions of 2011. The 40th World Sprint Championships took place in the Dutch skating Mecca – Thialf – in Frisian Heerenveen (NED). Nesbitt was the 10th champion in ten years!
Due to the Asian Games, not all the top skaters from Asia were present. Notable in the ladies’ field was the absence of 2010 Champion Sang-Hwa Lee (KOR) and 2009 Champion Beixing Wang (CHN). Eleven personal bests were skated, and two NRs were improved (AUS and LAT).
Ladies’ events
Twenty-nine skaters participated in the ladies’ competition, with Christine Nesbitt as the real favourite. Dutch skaters Margot Boer, Ireen Wüst, Annette Gerritsen and Laurine van Riessen competed, with German Jenny Wolf, Japanese Nao Kodaira and Heather Richardson from the USA for the remaining podium places. Wolf, as world record holder in the 500m, was expected to win this distance, but back problems had hindered her earlier in the season. She won, but not with the usual margin; her 38.21 was slower than expected. Boer and Kodaira, paired together, both skated 38.28, thus sharing silver. Then followed Richardson, Gerritsen and Nesbitt in 38.51, 38.53 and 38.57 respectively.
In the 1000m, Jenny Wolf didn’t expect too much of her performance, resulting in an almost relaxed race that was however unexpectedly fast. 1:17.36 was her time, and fifth over the distance. The next favourites to start were Boer and Nesbitt. Boer had a better opening, but a mistake cost her a lot of speed, and her attempts to continue with technically sound skating failed, to her visible dismay. Instead, she could only watch as Nesbitt got away. In the final lap, the Canadian took only 29.3 seconds: she finally won in 1:15.01, an improvement of the track record, which stood at 1:15.34. Boer finished in 1:17.47, and thought the final podium out of reach. Kodaira and Richardson finished with times between Wolf and Boer. The other three Dutch skaters finished faster than Wolf: Wüst got silver with 1:16.49, Gerritsen took bronze with 1:16.89 and Van Riessen took fourth place. In the overall classification, Nesbitt had a lead over Wolf that translated to 0.82 of a second in next day’s 500m. Gerritsen, Kodaira and Boer were close behind. Richardson’s 1000m had been less than expected due to her back problems.
On the second day, the times were rather slower. Wolf won in 38.33, and four ladies were close behind: Boer clocked 38.44, Nesbitt had a very good 38.45, and Richardson and Gerritsen then followed with 38.46 and 38.47 respectively. Van Riessen followed with 38.62. The loser was Kodaira, who needed 38.80 and dropped to 6th overall, seeing her chances of reaching the overall podium disappear.
For the 1000m, Nesbitt was safe, but Wolf needed another excellent race to keep her second place in the final classification. But now there was pressure and anticipation, and it didn’t work for her. With 1:19.07 she dropped to 8th overall, behind Ireen Wüst, who had an excellent final 1000m – her 1:15.93, with a 29.4 last lap, was good for Silver over the distance. Her pair-mate Van Riessen had the faster start and managed 1:16.61, keeping Richardson, who skated 1:16.67, off the podium again. Gerritsen and Boer were paired together. Boer needed to beat Gerritsen with 0.02 of a second and was on the way, but then she had two poor strokes on the final straight and the team-mates glided over the finishing line side by side in 1:17.14, which kept Gerritsen in the lead. In the final pair, where Wolf skated so poorly, once more no-one could touch Nesbitt. Her 1:15.39 brought her to the title with 152.220 points, while Gerritsen had 154.015 in total, Boer 154.025, and Richardson finished in fourth with 154.035.
