SPEEDSKATING: North American Speedskating Alive And Kicking In Asia

Through most of last season, Chris Witty could not buy a top 15 ranking in a World Cup 1000 meter speedskating race to save her life. Saturday, in the opening weekend of the Essent ISU World Cup for sprinters (races of 500 and 1000 meters), she won only her second career 1000m race in Asia since 1996.

Witty, who competed in the Sydney Olympics as a cyclist, won the season-opening race in Seoul, Korea in a time of 1:19.01 seconds. It was sufficient to beat German Monique Garbrecht's 1:19.12, while Eriko Sanmiya of Japan shared the bronze medal with Sabine Volker, Garbrecht's countrywoman, in 1:19.32.

It was the United States' first victory in a speedskating event since last January 23 in Butte, Montana, a span of six world cup competitions and three world championships (allround, sprint and single distance worlds).

The 25-year-old from West Allis, Wisconsin picked up a bronze on the second day's 1000m race (the winner was Sanmiya). She was also her nation's best finisher on the women's 500 on both days of the meet (8th) as Catriona Lemay Doan of Canada won both events.

It was a stellar weekend for Canada's male sprinters as well. Defending World Sprints champion Jeremy Wotherspoon and Mike Ireland each picked up three medals. For Ireland, he scored the first 1000m world cup victory of his career and snared two silvers, eclipsing his teammate, who won gold on Saturday's 500 and two bronzes on Sunday.

The best showing among American men was Casey Fitzrandolph with top 12 finishes in each of the four races, with his highest ranking of 7th coming in Saturday's 500. The sprinters continue their Asian road trip with a stop next weekend in Nagano, Japan, site of the 1998 Winter Olympics.

North America's success wasn't limited to 400-meter ovals this weekend. It excelled quite nicely on 111-meter ones as well.

The United States short track team captured six medals at this weekend's World Cup stop in Changchun, China.

Apolo Anton Ohno continued his winning ways with gold medals on the 1500 and 3000m races and the men's team snatched a silver in the 5000m relay. Rusty Smith picked up two medals himself, bronzes in the 1000 and 3000. Ohno also won the weekend's top prize of best men's skater of the meet with his double gold performance. He holds a 10-point lead over Francois-Louis Tremblay of Canada in the season's overall rankings with two events left.

The Chinese flexed their considerable muscle in front of 8,000 fans as they swept the women's 3000 and men's 5000m relays. The short track world cup takes a breather with the final two events scheduled on January 26-28 in Trvana, the Czech Republic and Graz, Austria on February 2-4.

Consider this next item a semi-exclusive. It has been discussed only within the speedskating community until now. This will be the first time this story gets a wider amount of exposure. It’s about a skate which revolutionized speedskating upon its debut in 1996 and has contributed to the complete rewriting of the world record book. It’s about The Netherlands, inventors of the clapskate which propelled them to 11 medals (five golds) in the Nagano Olympics. And ultimately, it's about version 2.0, you might call it, of their secret weapon, just in time for the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City.

The original clapskate, which the Americans tried unsuccessfully to get banned during the 1997-98 season allow the skate blade to briefly disconnect from a skater's boot at the back, entirely unlike the fixed blade worn for decades. Clapskate blades stay in contact with the ice longer, and increase a skater’s push-off on each stroke all the way down to their toes, instead of lifting a fixed-blade skate off the ice before the leg is fully extended. The skates have one pivot, a hinge right under the toe.

The new clapskate, which is in development at the University of Amsterdam adds a second pivot while moving the first pivot back a small bit. The purpose is twofold; the skate will open even more and that larger leverage will provide more power in each stroke. Which will lead to even lower times than the original clapskate wrought. It is believed the skate is being tested by just one Dutch female world cup skater, Marieke Wijsman, this season.

But at least this time, the rest of the speedskating world won’t be caught by surprise as they were four years ago. The challenge will now be for the Dutch's competitors to respond in kind.