Saluting national records: Bulletin #2, 2018-11-22

Par Caroline Truchon

Photo par Danny Kim

The first two World Cups are now behind us and we witnessed some exceptional performances. 75 national records were beaten, for a total of 79 so far this season.

Two world records were shattered, one in Calgary and one in Salt Lake City. The first one was at the men’s 5000m relay, a record that belonged to the American team and is now in the hands of the Hungarian team. The second is the result of the domination of China's Wu Dajing on 500m. He was already holder of the 500m world record since the last Olympic games. He improved the record by 0.079 seconds, but every improvement in this record is a huge achievement in itself. I personally believe that within 4 years, we will see the 39 seconds bar being crossed. The bets are open!

Several other performances are worth highlighting, I have analyzed a few for you:

• Let’s start with Luxembourg, the country that broke the most national records during these first two stages. The 500m record was 42.961 at the beginning of the season, it is now 41.411 and belongs to Augusté Géré. It’s an improvement of 1.55 seconds, which is huge!
• In the 1000m, still on the men’s side, the national record was 1:29.288. After two weekends of competition, it is still Augustin Géré who holds this record, but with an improvement of 2.753 seconds. The record is now at 1:26.535.
• Also, for Luxembourg, but this time on the women’s side, Caroline Murphy improved the national records of the 500m and 1000m by 2 seconds during the two World Cups to set a 45.052 and 1:34.171 respectively.

• A new country has joined the World Cup scene and it is the Philippines. Julian Macaraeg holds the 500m record with a time of 43.936, an improvement of half a second. In the 1000m, it is also Macaraeg who holds the record, with a time of 1:29.658, improving it by 6.6 seconds! On the other hand, it is in the 1500m that we saw the biggest improvement, passing from 2:32.645 to 2:23.477(!!!), the record is now owned by Marc Gonzales.
  
  

• The oldest record that was smashed belongs to the Belgian Stijn Desmet, who broke the 500m national record owned by Wim de Deyne since February 2009, almost 10 years ago!
• Still on the Belgian side, it is necessary to underline the performance of Hanne Desmet in the 1000m. She knocked off her national record by more than 3 seconds, from 1:30.860 to 1:27.537.
• Other very old records have also been broken. Aaron Tran of the United States broke a 2010 record owned by Jeff Simon in the 1500m, bringing the record under 2min10sec with a 2:09.928.
• Yuri Confortola from Italy did the same thing in the 1000m this time, also beating a 2010 record, owned by Nicolas Bean, skating a time of 1:23.354 on the distance.

• Natalia Maliszewska improved her own national record from 42.808 to 42.587, which is significant in the 500m. She is getting dangerously close to Elise Christie’s world record (42.335). It will be interesting to see her progress over the next competitions and following seasons.
• The Hungarians improved their national record in the 500m by more than half a second (0.606). Liu Shaoang is now the national record holder with 39.699 settled in Salt Lake City, compared to 40.305 set in February 2017 by his brother.
• Cheyenne Goh improved her own national record in the 1000m by almost 3 seconds. The record is now a time of 1:33.709, compared to 1:36.513 set at the last World Championships in Montreal in March.

• The Japanese women broke their national record in the relay by more than two seconds, which dated from 2012! The same goes for the Japanese men as well as the Canadians who broke their national record in the relay, also dating back to 2012.
• This record can be surprising but unless I'm making a mistake, the Dutch broke their national record in the 5000m relay by almost 8 seconds, from 6:36.198 to 6:28.879!
• The Polish women also improved their national record in the relay by more than 3 seconds going from 4:14.047 to 4:10.932.
• Still on the relay side, the Russian women lowered their 3000m national record by almost 4 seconds, to set it at 4:03.925. The old record was 4:07.842.

Obviously, I have not been able to highlight all the new national records and there are other great performances that have been made during the first two World Cups. You can find them HERE

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