Martina Sáblíková (CZE) collected her 48th career World Cup win to end a two-yearWorld Cup draught with a gold medal in the 3000m at Hamar's Vikingskipet on Friday. Natalya Voronina (RUS) clocked 4:03.76 to edge out pair-mate Marina Zueva (BLR) (4:03.80) in a very close battle for what ended up to be and third and second place.
Sverre Lunde Pedersen (NOR) took charge in the long-distance World Cup with a solid 5000m win in front of a very enthusiastic home crowd on Friday. The Norwegian was the only one to keep all his lap times under 30 seconds to finish in 6:16.16. Aleksandr Rumyantsev (RUS) took silver and Olympic 10,0000m champion Ted-Jan Bloemen (CAN) took bronze to qualify for the World Cup final in Salt Lake City by the skin of his teeth.
Speed Skating fans at Hamar's Vikingskipet watched two track records set on the second day of the ISU World Cup Speed Skating.
Nao Kodaira (JPN) won the 500m in 37.25 seconds to skate Jenny Wolf's (GER) 2008 time of 37.52 seconds into the history books. Nao Kodaira faced Vanesse Herzog (AUT) in the eighth pairing. Kodaira was 0.17 seconds faster over the first 100m but Herzog managed to win back a little in the full lap. Her 37.37s also bettered Wolf's previous record. Angelina Golikova (RUS) was more than half a second slower to take bronze in 37.91s.
Brittany Bowe (USA) took 1000m gold in 1 minute, 14.79 seconds, to beat another German 2008 track record: Anni Friesinger's 1:14.81. Kodaira took silver in 1:15.25. Lotte van Beek (NED) stopped the clock at 1:15.42 to take bronze.
In 34.65s, Pavel Kulizhnikov (RUS) left Kim Jun-Ho (KOR) 0.06 seconds behind in second place during the 500m. Dai Dai Ntab (NED) took bronze in 34.77.
Kai Verbij (NED), who won the European Sprint title in Collalbo, Italy in January, took gold in the 1000m. He finished in 1:08.47, leaving Thomas Krol (1:08.53) and Kjeld Nuis (1:08.71) in second and third place respectively.
Denis Yuskov (RUS) took his third 1500m gold medal of the season but the crowd inside Hamar's Vikingskipet – with Norwegian prime minister Erna Solberg among them – cheered louder for Håvard Bøkko (NOR) collecting the silver medal. The Norwegian took his first individual World Cup medal since the 2012/2013 season. . Kim Min-Seok (KOR) took bronze.
In the 500m it was gold and silver for Russia. Pavel Kulizhnikov won his second race of the weekend in 34.78s. Ruslan Murashov (RUS) came second in 34.82s and Saturday's silver medalist Kim Jun-Ho (KOR) took bronze in 34.84s.
With a 25.0 opening versus Lotte van Beek's 26.0, Brittany Bowe (USA) had just enough money in the bank to finish 0.24 seconds ahead of her Dutch rival in the 1500m. The bronze medal went to last year's Junior World Champion allround Joy Beune (NED) in 1:57.15.
Vanessa Herzog (AUT) extended her lead in the 500m World Cup with a gold medal in 37.61 seconds. Russia's Angelina Golikova (37.90s) and Olga Fatkulina (38.09s) took silver and bronze.
