Mid-season bulletin in long track: Russia

Russian skaters had a solid 2018-2019 season start in long track speed skating.

By Jackob Savard

Photo: Schaats Foto's

To continue our mid-season bulletin series, here’s our article about Russia, one of the best countries in these first four World cup events in long track speed skating.

Kulizhnikov leads a solid sprint team

Russian sprinters had good results in the first four events of the season. Pavel Kulizhnikov was the one who collected the most medals. He is currently in second place of the World cup ranking on 500m and third in the 1000m ranking. Kulizhnikov won six events during the first half of the season including four wins on 500m. After four competitions, his teammate Viktor Mushtakov is currently in 6th place of the 1000m ranking and in 7th place of the 500m ranking. Denis Yuskov also had good results with two 1500m wins and a bronze medal on 1000m. The Russian team sprint squad finished in third place of the final World cup ranking. 

Olga Fatkulina and Daria Kachanova are the best Russian sprinters on the ladies' side after four competitions. Fatkulina is second in the World cup ranking on 500m and 7th on 1000m. Twenty-one-year-old Daria Kachanova is ranked 5th in both the 500m and 1000m rankings. The Russian ladies team won the team sprint classification thanks to a gold and a silver medal. 


Surprising results in the longer distances
If Kulizhnikov and Yuskov’s results were predictable in the shorter distances, not much could have predicted that the Russians would have been so strong in the endurance races. Alexander Rumyantsev is currently leading the long distances ranking while his young teammate Danila Semerikov is in third, thanks to an incredible performance on 5000m in a packed Thialf for World cup #4. Their teammate Sergey Trofimov is in 8th place of this ranking. The three guys also skated to a second place finish in the team pursuit overall classification.

Natalia Voronina is in 4th place in the ladies’ long distances ranking after four events. Also, Russia finished second in the ladies team pursuit World cup with two bronze medals and a silver.

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