You can go home again

The World Cup speed skating tour resumed after a month-long hiatus in the place where news was made for two magical weeks last February, and none of it controversial. Only spectacular. It kicked off with a gimmicky, free event which was noted for who didn't participate as who did. It ended with youth and experience served equally well.

Kearns, Utah's Olympic Oval was the setting for 500 meter and 1,000 meter races, this weekend. Before that, a new event was introduced for the first time; a 100-meter sprint, which counted as a 500m would in the points standings. So the Utah facility would get a chance to snag two more world records. The event did not attract the likes of Monique Garbrecht-Enfeldt of Germany, the 500m points leader, and two-time defending Olympic champion Catriona Lemay Doan of Canada questioned the wisdom of having the results of this race added to the 500m standings. There were several false starts as well, which took some of the luster out of this somewhat gimmick-laden event.

Known for her great starts throughout her career, Svetlana Zhurova of Russia won the inaugural women's "super-sprint" with an officially recognized world record of 10.31 seconds to Lemay Doan's 10.33. Yukari Watanabe of Japan won the bronze as Asian skaters took the next four spots. For the men, Hiroyasu Shimizu, as much of a lead-pipe cinch to be the fastest 100-meter man on any given day a 500m is run, had to settle for a *bronze* (9.51 seconds), behind a Canadian specialist in 100m races, Mark Nielsen (9.45) and winner (plus fellow Japanese) Tomonori Kawata (official world record of 9.44).

No American finished in the men's top 15; Joe Cheek was 16th, Tucker Fredericks 18th, Kip Carpenter, Nick Pearson and Derek Parra were 20th, 22nd and 24th respectively. But the first-ever speed skater from Mexico, Eric Kraan, made his world cup debut and finished 29th out of 31 skaters. The fact that the only reason he didn't finish last was that two others didn't finish was irrelevant. He got to achieve his dream of competing in speed skating -- and he got for himself (and his country) the first World Cup point in its history.

Only two American women saw fit to try the new format; Chris Witty was tied for 17th, and Elli Ochowicz was one spot behind her.

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Saturday got the ball rolling with Garbrecht-Enfeldt continuing Lemay Doan's victory drought (silver) with Sayuri Osuga of Japan third. Belarus' bright spot in speed skating, Anzhelika Kotyuga, re-entered the top 5 with the Saturday result (fourth), followed by Zhurova. The top Americans reverted back to form, somewhat, with Witty tied for 13th, and Becky Sundstrom 16th.

Canadian Jeremy Wotherspoon had himself a banner day on Saturday, sweeping both the 500m and 1000m races. In the former, Joji Kato of Japan was the runnerup, followed by Erben Wennemars and Jan Bos of the Netherlands, and Dimitri Lobkov of Russia fifth. Cheek (7th), Carpenter (8th) and Pearson (11th) were the American order of finish. In the latter, Wennemars won his second silver of the day's events, and Cheek swiped a bronze. Olympic champion Gerard van Velde of the Netherlands and Pearson rounded out the top five. Carpenter made it three home teamers in the top seven of the kilometer.

Jennifer Rodriguez won the first World Cup race of her career in Kearns in December 2001 on the 1000m, and she liked that so much, she came back for seconds on Saturday. Only she relegated Garbrecht-Enfeldt to second. Witty continued her comeback from a flu bug by securing bronze. Kotyuga was fourth again, and 1998 Olympic 1000m champ Marianne Timmer of the Netherlands scored her first top 5 finish of the season. Sundstrom was 7th, Ochowicz 11th to round out the American team's finishes.

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Sunday saw Garbrecht-Enfeldt and Wotherspoon continue their dominion over the 500m; the German building up a nice head of steam going into next weekend's World Sprint Championships defeating Manli Wang of China, and Tomomi Okazaki of Japan. Shinya was fourth, and Lemay Doan again could not crack the podium, finishing fifth. Witty was the best domestic finish in 13th, followed by Sannes (17th) and Sundstrom (18th).

The 500m points standings (with the 100m super-sprint counting for the same number of points for a win as a 500m or 1000m), then, with five events to go, one of them another 100m race at Inzell, Germany in six weeks:

Women

1. Garbrecht-Enfeldt, 540 2. Lemay Doan, 416 3. Osuga, 407 4. Shinya, 367 5. Zhurova, 342

Men

1. Wotherspoon, 612 2. Kato, 378 3. Shimizu, 335 4. Wennemars, 318 5. van Velde, 301

Garbrecht-Enfeldt set herself up as the prohibitive favorite for next weekend by winning her third race out of four with her kilometer triumph. She also set a new world record for sprint samalog points in the process (a combination of two 500m and two 1000m races). Rodriguez and Witty, in that order, joined her on the podium. Sundstrom continued to build toward next weekend's showdown in Calgary by finishing fourth; Timmer wound up fifth. Lemay Doan did not start, and took a hit in the 1000m points standings, now with four races left. That shapes up thusly:

Women

1. Garbrecht-Enfeldtm 580 2. Witty, 416 3. Aki Tonoike (JPN), 309 4. Shinya, 267 5. Sundstrom 240 (her first time ever in a top 5 of any World Cup points race this late in the game)

Wennemars spoiled Wotherspoon's shot at a sweep with a near-miss world record attempt, less than .2 outside of it as the Canadian finished second and van Velde was third. Cheek and Japan's Yusuke Imai rounded out the first five. With four races left, here's how the men shape up:

1. Wennemars, 510 2. Wotherspoon, 420 3. van Velde, 410 4. Bos, 348 (he was disqualified in Sunday's race) 5. Pearson, 306

The Sprint World Cup season now goes on hiatus until March 1-2 at Inzell, with the 100m event taking place the day before the official start of that meet. No more world cup races, period, until February 15 at Baselga di Pine', Italy, where the all-round season will resume with 1500, 3000 and 5000m races.

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Calgary, Canada's monument to speed skating history, the Olympic Oval (the original, and the name its Utah counterpart shamelessly lifted from when it came time to rename its venue) will host its first major international event of the post-Salt Lake City Olympics era next Saturday and Sunday, the World Sprint Championships.

In the past, the arrival of an International Skating Union-sponsored world championship (or a world cup) in Calgary meant statisticians would have to sharpen their pencils to rewrite the world record book. And those records, since it opened for business in 1988 have fallen like dominoes. Yet, if a world record is set here this coming weekend, it will be as shocking as Witty's golden moment last February. The reason can be traced to a number.

400.

Give or take, the number of meters higher up the venue for last year's Olympic speed skating races is than Calgary. The higher above sea level (a.s.l.) you get, the less wind resistance you encounter. By the end of the fortnight last February, Kearns' oval had every long track world record save one; the women's 500, which survived this past weekend. It's against this sobering reality that the Olympic Oval's days as the world's fastest ice may very well be in the rear-view mirror, the 32nd annual showdown between the elite of the 500m and 1000m meter persuasion is upon us.

So who will rule the roost? Wotherspoon is thirsting to put his Olympic flameout of last year behind him. He will aim for his third world title opposed, as always for the past half-decade by arch-rival Shimizu, who will lead a potent Japanese team, gender irrelevant, onto the University of Calgary campus. The Dutch, with their three-headed threat of Bos, Olympic 1000m champion van Velde and Wennemars will also pounce on any opening the 'Spoon or Shimizu should show them. It will be awfully tough, however, to unseat the Canadian on his home turf, as demonstrated this weekend, where he set his own world record in a four-race sprint samalog format.

Without their ace, last year's Sprints runner-up Casey Fitzrandolph, the Americans will rely on Cheek, Carpenter and Pearson to carry the load. Top 10 finishes seem assured for the first two, but keep an eye on Pearson; he's had some success on the 1000m. While an overall podium finish seems out of reach, team USA should do just fine.

Lemay Doan's possible last hurrah in Calgary in a major international competition may be spoiled. She has fought a nagging back injury all season and did not finish a kilometer race at the Canadian sprint championships on January 2nd. For the first time in a long, long while, she seems very vulnerable. So you thus look to the ageless Garbrecht-Enfeldt, who is trying for one-for-the-thumb territory; a fifth world sprints crown, the most for any speed skater, Eric Heiden included.

Who, then, will the 34-year-old German need to hold off to make that a reality? Not her teammate, 2002 triple Olympic medalist Sabine Volker, who's still on the shelf with a viral infection and won't come back at least until the World Single Distance championships in mid-March, the final event of the season. Again, you look to Asia, and a duo in particular; Shinya and Osuga.

On the U.S. bench, can Sundstrom, of all people, can continue the mini-roll that she's been on. She won the national sprint championships, holding a pair of wins over Rodriguez, and may actually challenge for a top 10 spot overall. Sundstrom, like Fitzrandolph, left the national team to train on her own, and her upwardly progressing results of late are a byproduct of that.

The answers to these and other questions will be revealed in the shadow of the Canadian Rockies, and here, seven days hence.