SPEEDSKATING: Speedskating Has Its Own Playoffs

From the world of speedskating, which harbors no athletes accused of double homicides, nor who cop a plea to obstruction of justice charges, nor compare themselves to Jesus, nor have not a scintilla of remorse for the dead nor their families on media day of an Essent ISU World Cup competition, a recap of last week’s events for one’s perusal.

Helsinki’s Oulunkylä Ice Stadium oval saw the end of Catriona Lemay Doan’s five race win streak on the 500 meters, spoiled by Monique Garbrecht-Enfeldt, fresh off her world sprints win of the prior week who swept both of Saturday’s 500 and 1000m events. The weather conditions Saturday deteriorated rapidly into a mix of heavy snow which begat sleet, which turned the men’s 500 in particular into a lottery, with two men, neither of which were in the top dozen of that race’s season points standings, finishing 1-2.

Japan’s Manabu Horii and Poland’s Tomasz Swist ended Canadian men’s hegemony on the distance as world cup points leader Hiroyasu Shimizu, locked in a season-long points duel with Jeremy Wotherspoon had to settle for a tie for third place. On each gender’s 1000, Garbrecht-Enfeldt routed last year’s world junior allround champion, Japan’s Aki Tonoike by 1.58 seconds to win, while Norway’s Adne Sondral closed out day one with the narrowest of 1000m wins over another of Japan’s strong sprint team, Toyoki Takeda, by .02.

For Swist, it was his first career medal and just Poland’s 6th world cup medal in 11 years.

For the Americans, it was a mixed bag on Saturday. Chris Witty did not crack the top 13 in either of her races, finishing second from last out of 20 on the 500 and 14th on the 1000. Casey Fitzrandolph fared a little better, with top ten finishes on the first day’s races. But it was the lesser-knowns who made their mark. Becky Sundstrom, who seems to excel in terrible weather, nearly swiped a bronze on the 1000, finishing 4th, while Amy Sannes was just one spot behind her. Nick Pearson, who seems to have switched to being a sprinter, was 6th on the first day’s 1000.

On Sunday, as the weather calmed down a lot from the day before, so did the results revert truer to season form. Lemay Doan reentered the winner’s circle with a win on the 500 as Garbrecht-Enfeldt romped in the kilometer, beating Witty by 1.25 seconds. Wotherspoon punched out two more wins as he swept the men’s 500 and 1000 while Swist proved his bronze was no fluke by finishing 5th on Sunday’s 500. The fireworks came in the 1000, as Sondral, the world cup points leader on the distance, was disqualified in his pairing due to interference, read; failing to yield to the inner lane skater, which was Ireland.

The Americans had a splendid day Sunday, as Fitzrandolph was 5th on the 500, followed by 8th place Pearson and 10th place Joe Cheek. Sannes came within .05 of a bronze on the Sunday 1000, with Sundstrom 11th. An encouraging weekend as the World Cup goes once more, with feeling, to the Mecca of the sport, Ijsstadion Thialf in Heerenveen, Netherlands, where all distances will be skated except the two longest (women’s 5000, men’s 10000). That takes place next weekend.

The less said about America’s performance at the next to last short track world cup of the season in Trnava, Slovakia, the better.

The best finish was Tom O’Hare’s 9th place overall, as Asians once more showed who was boss on both sides of the gender aisle. Jia Jin Li and Yang A. Yang of China were the winners in this weekend’s races, but their continental dominance was cut short on the men’s 5000 and women’s 3000m relays, both won by Canada.

The short track World Cup Final kicks off in Graz, Austria on Friday, where American Apolo Anton Ohno has a legitimate shot at becoming the season’s overall points winner.

This week’s column was supposed to be a world championships allround preview, but the nation which will have the most say in determining the order of finish in Budapest, Hungary has not yet decided who will go there. It is a dilemma bemoaned by the locals for years, but something speedskating fans in America would gladly sell their soul for.

The Dutch speedskating ranks are among the deepest in terms of talent in any individual or team sport in the world. And sometimes circumstances present themselves that they ask their skaters to participate in sort of a playoff for a world cup spot, or a place on a world championship allround team. Such was the case last Thursday in Heerenveen, in which a lot of subplots that unfolded throughout the season would come to a head, thanks to Gianni Romme’s illness and subsequent withdrawl from the European Championship earlier this month. It was a fascinating glimpse into a country’s speedskating system and once you read through this twisting, turning story, you’ll wish as well we should be so unlucky.

The first question that needs to be posed is this; who fought for what? Five different scenarios would decide who went to Budapest (perhaps), and to qualify for this weekend’s Heerenveen world cup in various distances.

On the women’s 1500, one spot for the Heerenveen world cup was open, as four had already qualified. Marianne Timmer, Wieteke Cramer, Sandra 't Hart, Judith Straathof and Marieke Wijsman vied for this lone spot. The outcome - Timmer in a rout, by nearly two full seconds over Straathof. Timmer goes to Heerenveen on the metric mile.

On the contrary, only two men’s 1500m spots were secure for the next World Cup; Rintje Ritsma and Erben Wennemars. Three spots remained, but 12 men participated in this skate-off; 1999 World Single Distance 10000m champion Bob deJong, Jeroen Straathof, Jan Bos, Jakko Jan Leeuwangh, Ids Postma, Jochem Uytdehaage, Sicco Janmaat, Jelmer Beulenkamp, Carl Verheijen, Brigt Rykkje, Martin Hersman - and Ritsma.

Why did Ritsma skate?

Because in order to determine who among them would go to Budapest, the times of both the 1500 and 5000, a combined samalog of those two races, would be the measuring stick. Uytdehaage, Bos and Postma finish the metric mile in that order and will skate the distance in Heerenveen.

But it gets better. And more suspenseful...

The men’s 5000m skateoff would yield just one spot for this weekend, as Romme, Ritsma, deJong and Verheijen pre-qualified. One would join them. The other would be the alternate. So it would be Uytdehaage vs. Beulenkamp for that spot. Nevertheless, Ritsma, Rykkje, Janmaat, Verheijen, Hersman and de Jong would join them as they skated for much higher stakes.

deJong won the 5000, with Uytdehaage second, Ritsma third. Since he beat Ritsma soundly in both races, and finished first overall in the 1500-5000 samalog ranking to Ritsma’s runner-up, Uytdehaage qualified for the Dutch world championship allround team. Verheijen and deJong were first and second alternates for Budapest - for the moment. One skater still needs to be picked, and that will be decided on Sunday afternoon in Heerenveen.

Which puts Ritsma, who has had a problem of late with a pelvis injury, square on the bubble. The national governing body of Dutch speedskating decided that in order for Romme to qualify for Budapest, he must be approximately 7 seconds faster than the next best Dutch skater, (and it doesn’t have to be Ritsma, just the next best Dutch) on that distance. Otherwise, the defending world champion will have to stay home. Because he missed out on the continental championships in Italy, he has no other recourse than to skate the lights out here. This is Romme’s one and only chance to qualify and thus defend the world title he won in Milwaukee last year. If Romme does what is asked of him, he goes to Hungary. If he fails, Ritsma returns to the world championship stage. In a roundabout way, Ritsma has to root for deJong and Verheijen, for if either of them keep within 7 seconds of Romme on Sunday, Ritsma wins.

It doesn’t seem fair, for not Romme’s own 5k will be the ultimate judge of his qualification for Budapest, but rather how close his countrymen come to that 7-second gap. So it’s quite conceivably possible that Romme could wind up lowering his own world record of 6:18.72, for instance - and if deJong, Verheijen or Ritsma come close to, say, 6:24.62, Romme is SOL - s**t outta luck.

Just so you don’t think I’m leaving the women out of this, there is a lot on the line for the Dutch here as well. Two skaters have already qualified for the allround worlds, due to their great performances at Europeans: Wieteke Cramer and Renate Groenewold. This will be a rather simple woman-o vs. woman-o: Tonny deJong and Barbara de Loor will in the course of this world cup skate off to see who is the third qualifier and who will be the alternate. This skate-off will consist of an unofficial samalog ranking of their respective 1500 and 3000 meter races.

Whew...no matter what happens, it will make for an off-the-charts, pulse-pounding weekend, with more than 15,000 fans expected to pack the famous oval for memories waiting to be made. And you’ll have a blow-by-blow of this critical world cup next time out.