Dubreuil gets a medal on the final day of racing in Tomaszów Mazowiecki

The second leg of the World Cup season came to an end today in Tomaszów Mazowiecki.

By Jackob Savard
Photo: Jaap Hop (JH sportfotografie)

The men’s 500m, the ladies’ 1500m, the men’s team pursuit and the ladies’ mass start were raced on the third day of racing in Poland. 

Dubreuil on the 500m podium

Japanese Tatsuya Shinhama and his teammate Yuma Murakami took the first two positions of the men’s 500m race with only 0.002 seconds between them. Canadian Laurent Dubreuil finished third and claimed bronze. 

Wüst wins the 1500m for the second week in a row

Dutch Ireen Wüst won the ladies’ 1500m event for a second week in a row and established a new track record of 1:56.627. Japanese Miho Takagi and Russian Evgeniia Lalenkova finished second and third.

The Netherlands win the team pursuit

Douwe de Vries, Marcel Bosker and Patrick Roest led the Netherlands to gold in the men’s team pursuit. The Japanese and Russian teams got silver and bronze. 

Schouten defeats Blondin in the mass start

After losing to Ivanie Blondin last week in Minsk, Dutch Irene Schouten got the best of her Canadian rival today as she claimed gold in the ladies’ mass start. Blondin ended with silver and Japanese Nana Takagi, the reigning Olympic champion, got the bronze medal.

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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Wins from Krol, Kodaira, Mantia and team Russia on day 2

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

By Jackob Savard

Photo: Schaats Foto’s

The second day of racing in Tomaszów Mazowiecki included track records in the ladies’ 500m and men’s 1500m and exciting ladies’ team pursuit and men’s mass start races. 

Kodaira takes back 500m glory

After finishing third last week in Minsk, Japanese Nao Kodaira ended on the highest step of the 500m podium today in Poland. Her time of 37.775 which is now the new track record in Tomaszów Mazowiecki allowed her to beat Russian skaters Olga Fatkulina and Daria Kachanova. 

Krol, Nuis and Yuskov once again at the top on 1500m 

The men’s 1500m podium was once again composed of Thomas Krol, Kjeld Nuis and Denis Yuskov, but in a different order than last week in Minsk. This time, Thomas Krol was the winner as he skated a new track record of 1:45.76. Last weekend’s winner Kjeld Nuis finished second and Denis Yuskov third. Twenty-year-old Canadian Tyson Langelaar who was in the B group last week finished fifth of the A group this week. 

Russia beats the Netherlands in the team pursuit

For a second day in a row, Russia was faster than the Netherlands in a ladies’ team event. The Russian trio managed to win the team pursuit in front of their Dutch rivals by 0.12 seconds. Canada finished third while team Japan, the Olympic champions on the distance, crashed and finished last. 

Mantia edges out the competition in the mass start

After some breakaways by different skaters, American Joey Mantia won the pack sprint of the men’s mass start. The reigning World champion on the distance was followed by Dutch veterans Jorrit Bergsma and Arjan Stroetinga who completed the podium. 

For our recap of day 1, click HERE

For the full results, click HERE

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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

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Obihiro day 1: Olympic Champions Lorentzen and Kodaira capture first 500m titles of the season

The men’s team from Russia, and the women’s team from Japan found themselves atop the podium at the first world cup of the season in the team pursuit. The 500m will be raced two-times this weekend, with Havard Lorentzen and Nao Kodaira being crowned champions in the distance the first time around.

By Maria Dalton

Photo by Oscar van den Bosch

The first day of racing in Obihiro at World Cup 1 saw skaters racing the first of two 500m events as well as the team pursuit. With a new track record established in the team pursuit event and dominating performances by the reigning Olympic champions, the season is setting out to be very exciting as new and old rivalries continue to grow and evolve.

Lorentzen, Kodaira bring home hardware

Havard Lorentzen, the reigning Olympic champion, found himself atop the podium in the 500m. Lorentzen was skating with world record holder Pavel Kulizhnikov in the ninth pair in what was an exciting race as the skaters finished within 4 one-hundredths of a second of each other. Lorentzen finished with a time of 34.732, while Kulizhnikov finished with a time of 34.777. Tatsuya Shinhama of Japan delighted a home crowd with his bronze medal finish in a time of 34.871.

Nao Kodaira, the reigning Olympic champion in the 500m, continued her domination by posting a time of 37.496 to capture her first medal of the 2018/2019 season. Kodaira’s dominance in the distance goes all the way back to the 2017 World Sprint Championships in Calgary, where she captured her first title. Vanessa Herzog of Austria finished just behind Kodaira with her time of 37.642. Kodaira’s compatriot, Maki Tsuji finished in third place with her time of 38.040.  

Russia, Japan on top in the  team pursuit

The Russian team found themselves atop the podium in the men’s team pursuit, posting a blistering time in the third of six pairs. The skaters from Russia posted a time of 3:41.260 and watched as team after team failed to match their time, giving them their first win of the season in the team pursuit. Finishing in second place were Dutch skaters Marcel Bosker, Douwe de Vries and Chris Huizinga, who finished with a time of 3:42.140. The trio of Norwegian skaters finished in third with a time of 3:42.770. The reigning Olympic champions started off strong but faded as the race went on and were no match for the quick pace set by the Russian skaters. Rounded out the top-5 were the teams from Japan and Canada.

The Japanese team comprised of Ayano Sato, Nana Takagi and Miho Takagi found themselves atop the podium on the women’s side. The reigning Olympic champions were 3-seconds faster than the Dutch women and finished with a time of 2:57.80 to establish a new track record. Finishing in second was the Dutch trio of Ireen Wust, Lotte van Beek and Joy Beune with a time of 3:00.130. The team of Russian skaters finished with a time of 3:01.110, narrowly beating out the Canadians for the bronze medal. The teams from Canada and Poland rounded out the top-5.

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Kim & Hong crowned junior world champions - Sarault impresses with 4 medals

It’s in Tomaszow Mazowiecki, a town of about 65 000 people just 110km south-west of Warsaw, Poland that the future stars of short track speed skating from all over the world were meeting this weekend to fight for glory at the junior level.

By Carl Savard

Photos by Schaats Foto's and Jeff Scholten

Since the first installment of the junior championships in 1994, the competition has been totally dominated by the Koreans. Just a handful of elite athletes such as Canada’s François-Louis Tremblay and Marie-Eve Drolet, China’s Qu Chunyu and Ren Ziwei, and American legend Apolo Anton Ohno have been able to win the overall title or tie for gold with a korean skater.

Courtney Sarault & Kazuki Yoshinaga crash the party

The ladies' main final on 1500m, saw Kim Ji Yoo, Han Soo Lim and Lee Su Youn from Korea, Courtney Sarault from Canada, Shione Kaminaga from Japan and Russia’s Yuliia Beresneva fight it out to take the lead in the ranking. After a pretty quiet first half of the race, it became clear that the three Korean skaters were about to deploy a strategy to take possession of the podium. What they were not prepared for was that Canada’s Courtney Sarault was ready to compete and crash their party. While Kaminaga and Beresneva looked panicked when the Korean launched their onslaught, the 17 years old from Moncton, New-Brunswick just seemed ready for the challenge. Kim Ji Yoo won the race, followed by Sarault and Han.

On the men’s side, Hong Kyung Hwan, Park Jang Hyuk and Lee June Seo from Korea, Kazuki Yoshinaga from Japan, Pavel Sitnikov from Russia and Yerkebulan Shamukhanov from Kazakhstan met in the main final. While it seemed that the Korean skaters were going to finish in first, second and third position, Lee got greedy and tried to pass one of his teammate in the last corner. His move led to an inside pass by Yoshinaga and a penalty to Lee. Hong won the gold medal followed by Yoshinaga and Park.

America's sweetheart wins gold on 500m

It’s with no real surprise that we saw Hungary’s Petra Jaszapati and U.S.A.’s Maame Biney end up in the main final on 500m and they had to face Canada’s Courtney Sarault and Xandra Velzeboer from the Netherlands. The pace was definitely too fast for Sarault who’s known for her stamina on longer distances. Biney gets the gold with Jaszapati winning silver and Velzeboer the bronze. On the men’s side, Lee June Seo from Korea finished in first place ahead of his teammate Hong Kyung Hwan. Quentin Fercoq from France grabbed the bronze.

Four more medals for Korea on 1000m
The main final on this distance on the women’s side of the board was a battle between Korea’s Kim Ji Yoo, Canada’s Courtney Sarault, Marijn Wiersma from the Netherlands and Maame Biney and Gabriella Hachem from the United States. Hachem was advanced to the main final following a penalty to Petra Jaszapati in the semifinal. Even though it seemed easy for Kim to win this race, Sarault skated an impressive race to get silver once again. Biney finished third. For the men, Hong Kyung Hwan added another gold medal to his weekend, finishing ahead of his fellow countrymen Park Jang Hyuk and Lee June Seo.

Women’s 1500m super final, overall ranking and relay results
The last individual race of these championships had the top five ladies face each other to try and gather more points for the overall final ranking. Courtney Sarault proved once again that when it comes to endurance, she’s one tough opponent. The Canadian won this 1500m, finishing ahead of Kim Ji Yoo and Petra Jaszapati. Maame Biney tried to escape the pack from the get go, but she is a sprinter and they were all able to pass her with a few laps to go.

In the overall ranking, Kim Ji Yoo is your new 2018 junior world champion. This victory makes it a 21st korean victory on the women’s side in 25 years. Courtney Sarault of Canada finishes an impressive weekend with a second place overall. The last Canadian woman to finish on the overall podium of these championships was Kalyna Roberge in 2005. Roberge won the bronze at the time. The only other Canadian lady who did better than Sarault in juniors’ history is Marie-Eve Drolet, who won these championships two years in a row in 2000 and 2001. The third place overall went to the American sensation Maame Biney. In the relay event, Courtney Sarault helped by Alyson Charles, Danaé Blais and Claudia Gagnon won a gold medal for Canada, finishing ahead of Japan and Italy.

Men’s 1500m super final, overall ranking and relay results

The Korean men were just too strong this weekend in Poland. In the 1500m super final, Lee June Seo finished in first place with Park Jang Hyuk and Hong Kyung Hwan finishing in second and third place. In the overall ranking, Hong finished first winning the title with Lee and Park joining him on the podium. With twelve medals available in the individual events, Japan’s Kazuki Yoshinaga and France’s Quentin Fercoq were the only skaters not from Korea able to get on the podium. In the relay event, Korea was penalised with a yellow card in the main final. The gold was won by Japan, while silver went to team Russia and the bronze to the Dutch team.

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