Lorentzen & Ter Mors defeats the reigning champions

Havard Lorentzen and Jorien ter Mors claimed the 2018 world sprint champion titles today in Changchun.

By Jackob Savard

Photos by Schaats Foto’s

The skaters raced a second 500m and a second 1000m to complete the overall classification and crown two champions for the 2017-2018 season.

Lorentzen edged out Nuis & Verbij

Havard Lorentzen from Norway, who is having a great season, was crowned world sprint champion after the four races of the weekend. This season, Lorentzen is leading both 500m and 1000m World cup rankings. He was also crowned 500m olympic champion and also won the silver medal on 1000m in Pyeongchang. This weekend, he won both 500m races and finished second and fourth in the 1000m events. Kjeld Nuis and Kai Verbij from the Netherlands finished second and third on the final ranking. Nuis was victorious on both 1000m race but his 500m performances were not up to par with  the ones from the other contenders.

Ter Mors didn’t miss her chance

The reigning world sprint champion Nao Kodaira had to withdraw from the last 1000m race as she was ill. Jorien ter Mors who was second after three races took advantage of her rival’s absence to finish on top of the ladies’ classification. The Dutch won both 1000m events and added a second and a third place on 500m to win the World sprint champion title. Brittany Bowe from the United States finished in second place of the ranking. The skater who’s making a comeback to the competition this season after a concussion skated really well and got two second places on 1000m. Olga Fatkulina from Russia finished third of the overall classification.

Dubreuil ended his competition well

The only Canadian racing this weekend, Laurent Dubreuil, finished second in the 500m (2) on the last day of racing. He finished 12th in the overall men’s ranking.

You will be able to watch the majority of these skaters at the ISU World cup final that will be held in Minsk, Belarus on March 17th and 18th.