SPEEDSKATING: Calgary Day 1: Expect the unexpected...

The Final Inner

Despite a transit strike which is putting a major crimp in Calgarians weekend plans, one of the most anticipated speedskating events of the season began at the Olympic Oval, the Essent ISU World Cup Final.
While the one world record that figured to be broken was, it was the only mark to fall out of four races in which world records were favored to be rewritten in all of them. Combine that with a slew of upsets and you have the mix for a decidedly different day than what was expected.

The women’s 1000 kicked off the festivities. This was the first of two races, and the skaters who were at the top of the world cup ranks would go last, as they will all this weekend. At the halfway point, Japan’s Sayuri Osuga was in the lead, but by the 8th pair, the woman the crowd came to see, Catriona Lemay Doan of Canada surged into the catbird’s seat with a 1:15.01 clocking and beat out points leader Monique Garbrecht-Enfeldt of Germany (1:15.20). When Japan’s Aki Tonoike and Sabine Volker tried and failed to crack the top three, it was Chris Witty’s turn against Eriko Sanmiya.

The West Allis, Wisconsin native has had a rough go of late, namely feeling the need to switch coaches with just 2 weeks left in the season. Her 500m races had gone pretty much the way of XFL television ratings this time around and was clinging to 3rd in the overall 1000m points standings.

Finally, good karma went her way as Witty edged out Sanmiya and tied Lemay Doan’s 1:15.01 for the co-victory. Garbrecht-Enfeldt’s time held up for the bronze. As of now, here are the 1000m points standings with one race left, which will be run Saturday:

1. Garbecht-Enfeldt 760 (her bronze assured her of the season points crown)
2. Sanmiya 610
3. Witty 591
4. Aki Tonoike (JPN) 525
5. Lemay Doan 468

The men went next in their first of two 1000m events. A name from the distant past, 2-time world sprint champion from Russia, Sergei Klevchenja held the top spot before Casey Fitzrandolph set a national record of 1:08.62, just .27 slower than the current world record. His time held for all of one pair, as Jeremy Wotherspoon was on pace to break his own world record before he ran out of gas in the final turn and scored a 1:08.40. Which was the winning time, and the Americans went 2 for 2 on the podium as Fitzrandolph secured himself the silver, and Klevchenja’s time was good enough for bronze.

The men conclude their 1000m racing for the season tomorrow, and here are the top 5 going into Saturday’s finale:

1. Wotherspoon 572 points
2. Adne Sondral (NOR) 566 (and it didn’t help matters he finished 15th on Friday)
3. Erben Wennemars (NED) 466
4. Kyu-Hyuk Lee (KOR) 430
5. Jae-Bong Choi (KOR) 425

Fitzrandolph is tied for 6th with Japan’s Toyoki Takeda with 414 points, so with another good effort Saturday he could crack the top 5.

After that, the ladies resumed taking center stage with the most eagerly anticipated event of day one, the 3000. Gunda Niemann-Stirnemann had flirted all season with the 4:00 barrier, coming ever so closer on February 17 in Hamar, Norway when she knocked a quarter-second off her world record time down to 4:00.26.

This was the final 3000 of the world cup season, but the first of two chances she would have to once and for all take the plunge beneath 4. She would skate in the 10th and last pair against the Netherlands’ Renate Groenewold. Claudia Pechstein, Niemann’s teammate and foil for most of the last half-decade, would go two pairs prior against Barbara deLoor.

The race begins; Pechstein actually is 3/10ths faster than Gunda’s world record split in the opening 200 meters, but loses 8/10ths over the next 2 laps (Claudia: 1.22.40; Gunda 1.21.60). From 1400 to 2200 meters, Pechstein begins to shave precious tenths of a second at each lap. At 1800 meters, she is .62 behind the WR. At 2200, Pechstein closed the gap to .38. By the 2600 meter mark, as she begins her final lap, she is just .02 behind Niemann’s world record split with a lap left. Then Pechstein finds a fifth gear at exactly the right time, and crosses the finish line. The Olympic Oval scoreboard, which has recorded many a historic moment in its 14-year history, registers another:

3:59.27.

World record for Pechstein.

Her first 3000m best since December 13, 1997 at a world cup event in Hamar, Norway. Pechstein gained nearly a full second on the fateful final lap as she throttled Gunda’s old mark. It only took 14 years, but Pechstein joined Leo Visser of the Netherlands as the first of her gender to break the 4-minute barrier on the 3000.

Niemann skated last; she tried valiantly to answer her countrywoman, but it simply wasn’t to be this day. No rabbit-out-of-the-hat world record for the German legend this day. She would win the silver in 4:00.87. Ludmilla Prokasheva of Kazhakstan’s 4:05.01 won for her the bronze. Jennifer Rodriguez set an American record on the 3000 and finished 6th.

The final top 5 of the women’s 3000/5000m combination went like this...

1. Niemann-Stirnemann 460
2. Pechstein 390
3. Anni Friesinger (GER) 230
4. Groenewold 220
5. deLoor 215

Rodriguez’s best showing of the season on the 3000 propelled her to a top 10 season finish (10th). A good building block to go on next season. She will skate in the 1500m on Sunday. All in all, a terrific day for Team USA, and the promise of more good stuff to follow.

So with the crowd suitably fired up, and with Canadian Cindy Klassen’s 4th place on the 3000 continuing her l;ate-season surge to the speedskating elite list, the stage was set for the last big race of the day, the men’s 5000.

Would Gianni Romme, himself now on version 2.0 of the klapskates, lay to waste his world record of 6:18.72, set on Calgary’s oval a year and 6 weeks ago. As the world cup 5000/10000 points champion, he didn’t have to worry about anything except trying to go for it. He would skate last against Dutch teammate Carl Verheijen, who had averaged 4th on each of the longest distance races.

Johan Röjler of Sweden, last year’s world junior champion set a new world junior record to kick things off. Jochem Uytdehaage, the Dutchman who had Rintje Ritsma’s number at last month’s skateoff for the world allround championships in Heerenveen took the lead after 6 pairs. Ritsma skated next against Keiji Shirahata, and bombed, finishing 4th from last. The next pair is Bart Veldkamp of Belgium and Vadim Sayutin of Russia who takes the overall lead with 2 pairs left. But not for long, as the 1999 World Single Distance champion on the 10000 meters, Bob deJong inches closer to Romme’s world record with a 6:22.70 time.

The last pair begins, and Romme motors out in his traditional fast start. At 3000 meters, he holds a 1.94 second lead over Verheijen. On the next lap, he loses 1.6 seconds of that advantage, and at 3800 meters, Romme has hit the wall. Verheijen gains over 2 seconds on Romme at the 3800, 4200 and 4600m signposts. He gains over 3 seconds on the final lap.

Verheijen has taken the 2000 world allround champion to the cleaners. He wins his pair by 10.03 seconds and the gold to boot. Romme ends up 11th in the single biggest upset of the season in which he was favored to maybe challenge the world record in. deJong wins the silver, Sayutin the bronze. It is Verheijen's first career world cup win.

Here is how the combined 5000/10000m points standings shaped after the season’s last race:

1. Romme 424
2. Verheijen 370
3. deJong 340
4. Sayutin 320
5. Veldkamp 245

So a day which began with a dead heat ended with a ice-rocking upset. The allrounders are done for the 2000-01 campaign, and Saturday it’s the sprinters’ turn to shine. Races contested for women, then men respectively are the first of 2 500m races, as well as the final 1000m events of the season. At this point, the door has been left ajar for Salt Lake’s oval to claim the majority of the world records at the end of the season.

The next 48 hours will tell the tale.