Roest and Sablikova both get gold and a track record in Poland

The second long track speed skating World Cup of the season started today in Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Poland.

By Jackob Savard

Photo: Maria Dalton

The best long track speed skaters in the world competed for the first medals of the weekend in the team sprint event, the men’s 5000m and the ladies’ 3000m.

Russia and the Netherlands won the team sprint

The Russian ladies’ team managed to beat the Dutch team this week after finishing just behind them last weekend in Minsk. The Dutch team finished second and the Japanese team third. 

The Netherlands once again won the men’s team sprint event as Thomas Krol was replacing Kai Verbij alongside Kjeld Nuis and Ronald Mulder this week. Krol did the trick as the Netherlands beat China and Canada for a second week in a row. 

Track record and gold for Martina Sablikova on 3000m 

Czech veteran Martina Sablikova won the ladies’ 3000m in a track record time of 4:06.133. After her race, Sablikova said to ISU reporters she didn’t train all week because she was sick. It didn’t stopped her from lowering her previous track record by 8 seconds. Dutch Carlijn Achtereekte and Russian Natalia Voronina completed the podium while last week’s winner Isabelle Weidemann took fourth place. 

Russian and Dutch confrontation on 5000m

We saw a tight competition between Russia and the Netherlands in the men’s 5000m as the top 6 was exclusively composed of skaters from these two countries. Again this week, another track record was lowered by Patrick Roest. He skated the 5000m distance in 6:19.388 and was followed by Russians Danila Smerikov and Denis Yuskov who respectively took second and third.

For the full results, click HERE

Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter, follow our Facebook page, our Instagram account and our Twitter account for daily news and results about speed skating.