Another track record and more tight races on the final day of World Cup #1

The first World Cup of the season in long track speed skating ended yesterday in Minsk, Belarus. 

By Jackob Savard

Photo: Schaats Foto’s

On this last day of racing, one more track record was beaten and we witnessed some hard fought battles to grab the gold medals available in the different distances. The ladies’ 1000m and mass start as well as the men’s 1500m and 500m were on the program for the day. 

Jun-Ho Kim 500m winner

Korean Jun-Ho Kim won the first men’s 500m event of the season with his time of 34.870. He was closely followed by Olympic medalist Tingyu Gao from China and by Dutch champion Dai Dai Ntab who both finished 0.04 seconds slower than him to complete the podium.  Gao edged Ntab by three thousandth of a second to grab silver.

Another track record on 1000m

One more track record was lowered in Minsk as Brittany Bowe skated her 1000m in 1:15.354 to get the gold medal. Olympic champion Jorien ter Mors finished second and Russian Yekaterina Shikhova third. 

The three 1500m titans ended on the podium

A podium combination we saw many times in the last few years once again happened yesterday in Minsk as Kjeld Nuis, Denis Yuskov and Thomas Krol started their 1500m season on the podium. This time, world record holder on the distance Nuis ended at the top with Yuskov getting silver and Krol bronze. All three also got at least another medal this weekend which show us they’re in a good zone to start the season. 

Tight finish between Blondin and Schouten

This first weekend of long track racing ended with the ladies’ mass start final. Canadian Ivanie Blondin and Dutch Irene Schouten battled for gold in a tight sprint in the last lap which was finally won by Blondin. Schouten got silver and Italian Francesca Lollobrigida finished third. 

For our recap of day 1, click HERE

For our recap of day 2, click HERE

For the full results, click HERE

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