Nothing Hague -- or vague - -about it

Seven days ago, I wrote in this column:

"It would appear from these results that (Derek) Parra has now firmly supplanted Boutiette as the country's best hope for middle-distance success not only during this season, but at Kearns in mid-February."

This weekend, in the capital of the Netherlands, the "appear" was erased. For the first time in a generation, America has a legitimate shot at an Olympic medal on the men's 1,500 meters, the metric mile. And this will be an eSports exclusive, since you won't read about this anywhere else. No other media outlet in the United States has reported what I'm about to tell you. As torch-passings go, this was one for the books.

On Saturday afternoon in The Hague, on the third stop of the Essent ISU World Cup speedskating tour, Derek Parra captured his first-ever World Cup victory in the men's 1500m, America's first world cup victory on that distance since March 21, 1998 (Chris Witty at Milwaukee's Pettit Center oval). His also was the first 1,500m world cup win by an U.S. male speedskater since (perhaps) January 14, 1989 in Davos, Switzerland, when Eric Flaim, the prior year's world all-around champion raced to his only 1,500m win of the 1988-89 season as he won that season's points title.

It was a 1,500m full of surprises, as two heavy favorites went by the wayside -- Adne Sondral of Norway fell in his pairing, and defending world all-around champion Rintje Ritsma of the Netherlands made it official with his not even partaking in the race after an absolutely abysmal 5,000-meter trench in the mudflats the day before, where he wound up 20th out of 20 skaters. Ritsma is in a slump which, with the Dutch Olympic Trials coming up in three weeks at their Mecca of the sport in Heerenveen, does not bode well for his Salt Lake City hopes.

Parra came close to the top of the podium in last March's World Single Distance 1,500m championship and won the silver, just 0.1 behind Sondral. But Saturday was his breakthrough, as he was the only skater to clock a sub-one minute, 50-second time on the De Uithof oval (1:49.78) and relegated Martin Hersman of the Netherlands (1:50.39) and Christian Breuer of Germany (1:51.01) to silver and bronze, respectively. Other Americans beside Parra in the field of 20 were Tim Hoffman (14th) and Boutiette (17th).

With the win, Parra zooms to third place in the 1,500m points standings with 188 points, just seven behind Hersman and eight behind leader Petter Andersen of Norway, who finished fifth on Saturday. There will be one more 1500 world cup race this year, in Calgary on December 9 and just one other before the Olympics, in mid-January in Heerenveen. Jakko Jan Leeuwangh (185, sixth on Saturday) and Canada's Dustin Molicki (148) round out the top five.

There was an extra day's races added, which really taxed the all arounders on both sides of the gender aisle. Friday saw the women's 3,000m and men's 5,000m added to the program. Saturday had the men's 1,500m and women's 5000m (the first of the season for them). Sunday had the ladies taking a relative breather with a 1,500m, while the men went out for a leisurely 10,000-meter stroll (their first race of its kind this season).

On the men's 5,000m, it was Double Dutch Day, as Gianni Romme, who sat out the 10,000m on Sunday, kept his record spotless with a comfortable win (6:38.52, just missing the track record) over countryman Jochem Uytdehaage (6:39.93). Norway's Eskil Ervik spoiled a Dutch sweep by claiming the bronze (6:40.35). Parra didn't do quite as well here, finishing 11th, and was the only American in the main group of 20 skaters.

The question will soon be asked, not when Anni Friesinger's win streak this season is going to end, but rather, will it just keep on going and going and going? Friesinger remained perfect this season on every distance she has skated as the 24-year old set a track record in the 3K (4:12.52). Claudia Pechstein, who seemingly can't buy a break when it comes to playing second fiddle to a countrywoman on world cup race day, had to again settle for the silver (4:13.90). In the weekly "who gets to be third now that Gunda Niemann-Stirnemann is on the sidelines" sweepstakes, the co-winner this weekend was Holland's Tonny deJong (just .05 behind Pechstein).

Miami's Jennifer Rodriguez decided to skip this weekend's races to prepare for the sprint home opener next weekend in Kearns, Utah, the 2002 Olympic speedskating venue, so no Americans raced in either this race or the 5000m on Saturday.

The 5,000m was again dominated by the Germans, Friesinger 1.85 seconds better than Pechstein (7:15.30 vs. 7:17.15), with Maki Tabata of Japan snaring the bronze (7:20.30). The German women are pretty close to rendering the remainder of the World Cup season irrelevant if they continue on this monster roll. Friesinger leads the 3,000m/5,000m combined points rankings with a perfect 400 points, followed by Pechstein's 320. Tabata and deJong's bronzes pulled them into the top five, with the Japanese skater getting 230 points to deJong's 208. Groenewold (fourth on the 3K, 11th on the 5K) declined to fifth with 199 points, just three ahead of Canada's Cindy Klassen, who, in Rodriguez's absence would be Friesinger's prime North American challenger on the 1,500m Sunday.

On Sunday, skating together in the final pair of the women's races, Klassen gave Friesinger a scare, but in the end, it was the German who continued her blitzkrieg through the season, winning in 2:00.31 to Klassen's 2:01.20. Tabata earned her second bronze of the weekend with her 2:01.39 time. The big surprise, if you can call it that, was that Pechstein didn't finish on the podium (4th), a quarter second ahead of the Netherlands' Marianne Timmer, defending Olympic 1,500m champion.

Halfway through the 1,500m season schedule, Friesinger has all 300 possible first place points. She is followed by Pechstein's 190, and Klassen's silver propelled her to just five points out of 2nd. Rodriguez slips only one spot to fourth (remaining at 160), while Tabata's bronze gets her to 155 points and fifth overall.

The men's 10,000m was the final race of the day and the first of the season on an international level. There will be other 10K races skated at Olympic trials and the European championships in particular, but this, along with the women's 5,000m was the only time before Salt Lake City that everyone would skate the gender's longest distances. Conditions significantly worsened on the semi-outdoor oval where the later pairs had to deal with a driving rain and, thus, fog. When the smoke cleared, the Dutch streak of long distance wins was ended by Germany's Frank Dittrich, whose time of 13 minutes, 50.52 was over a second better than Norway's Lasse Saetre (13:51.90) and, for the first time in almost a decade, a Polish medallist, Pavel Zygmunt (13.53.78). The best the Dutch could muster was Bob deJong's fifth place, while defending World Single Distance 10,000m champ Carl Verheijen staggered into 16th. He was sandwiched by the only 2 Americans in the field, Parra (15th) and Jondon Trevena (17th).

The men's 5,000m/10,000m combined points standings saw Romme hang onto his lead at 300 points, followed by deJong in second (270). Dittrich's win escalated him into 3rd place overall ahead of Uytdehaage (208 vs. 185). Saetre's silver on Sunday ensured himself of 5th position (178).

Aside from a men's and women's 1,500m in Calgary on December 9, the all around season now is on hiatus (due to countries conducting Olympic Trials in speedskating to determine who goes to Salt Lake City) until the weekend of January 11, 2002 in Heerenveen. After that weekend, the World Cup season as a whole will be recessed until March. Next weekend, finally, the sprinters (those of the 500m and 1,000m persuasion) begin their season at the Utah Olympic Oval in Kearns. A two-day competition, men and women will skate a 500m and 1,000m race each day.

In preparation for next weekend, some of the international sprinters tried their luck at a Can-Am meet, open to Canadian and American speedskaters of all ages with a few superstars mixed in for good measure. Like defending Olympic and World Single Distance 500m women's champion Catriona LeMay Doan, who in a 500-meter race peeled off the fastest final lap of a women's 500m in history in winning the event and coming within less than 1/10th of a second of her current world record. Others participating of note were Japan's Toyoki Takeda and Manabu Horii as well as ace female sprinters Sayuri Osuga and Aki Tonoike and Russia's Svetlana Zhurova. All will be in action next weekend as they'll face Chris Witty, Rodriguez and Casey Fitzrandolph, the three best American sprinters and more.

We'll have complete coverage of the Kearns World Cup stop next weekend, where five of the 10 recognized International Skating Union individual race world records reside. It should be a doozy of a weekend, that's for sure.