After an exciting start to the 2021/22 ISU World Cup Speed Skating season, competition continues with the second installment in Stavanger, Norway this Friday. Sverre Lunde Pedersen (NOR) missed last week’s opening World Cup in Tomaszów Mazowiecki (POL) after a nasty bike crash last May and returns to the ice in front of his home crowd.
Sverre Lunde Pedersen (NOR) at the 2021 ISU World Speed Skating Championships © International Skating Union (ISU)
Unlucky Pedersen
Pedersen was airlifted to hospital after hitting a pothole and losing control of his bike during a training ride in Norway. The anchor of his nation’s Olympic gold-winning Team Pursuit squad in 2018 suffered several fractures and a tear in his liver.
Recovery took months but Pedersen is working hard to qualify and be ready for the Olympic Games in Beijing next February. The World Cup in Tomaszów Mazowiecki came too soon for the 29-year-old Norwegian but he will be present in Stavanger, skating the 10,000m at the Sørmarka Arena.
Tingyu Gao (CHN) © International Skating Union (ISU)
Strong Asian return
While Pedersen was back on his bike and training last week in Gran Canaria (ESP), the rest of the international field met for the first time this season in Poland. The Asian countries were back, having skipped last season’s bubble events in Heerenveen (NED) due to COVID-19, and enjoyed a successful few days’ racing.
Tingyu Gao (CHN) scored the first World Cup win of his career in the Men’s 500m. Tatsuya Shinhama (JPN) took gold in the second 500m. Min-Seok Kim (KOR) and Masahito Obayashi (JPN) also won career-first World Cup gold medals in the 1500m and the Men’s Mass Start, respectively.
USA women start on high note
In the women’s competition, Miho Takagi (JPN) was happy to be back, taking 1500m gold, and silver in the 1000m, but US skater Erin Jackson’s two 500m gold medals were the most notable.
The 29-year-old former inline champion from Florida turned her attention to the ice in 2017 but had never won a World Cup medal before last week. Jackson missed the 2020/21 campaign due to a freak accident while moving home, but this season seems to be her breakthrough year.
Jackson twice broke the track record at the Arena Lodowa in Poland to win her back-to-back golds, beating Olympic 500m champion Nao Kodaira (JPN) along the way.
Irene Schouten (NED) also won two gold medals, beating the 3000m track record on Friday and dominating the sprint in an exciting Mass Start race on the Sunday.
Erin Jackson (USA) © International Skating Union (ISU)
One-offs
The World Cup weekend in Stavanger features a short but intense program, including events that are contested only once this World Cup season.
The Men’s and Women’s Team Sprint races will be held only in Norway this year. The last time this event was skated in international competition was at the 2020 ISU World Single Distances Speed Skating Championships in Salt Lake City (USA), where the Netherlands won both the Men’s and the Women’s events.
The Women’s 5000m and the Men’s 10,000m are the other events that will be on the World Cup schedule only once this season, being part of the long distance World Cup, which features a Women’s 3000m and a Men’s 5000m in the other World Cup legs.
Nils van der Poel (SWE), who smashed the 10,000m World Record last season at sea-level rink Thialf in Heerenveen and won last week’s 5000m in Poland, is clearly the skater to beat in the Men’s long distances this season.
In the Women’s competition, World Champion Irene Schouten (NED) is the clear favorite.
Schedule
The Women’s 5000m is scheduled for Friday night, after a Women’s and Men’s 1000m. Saturday will feature a Men’s and Women’s 500m, the Men’s 10,000m and the Team Sprint for both genders. The Stavanger competition concludes on Sunday with the second 500m and the 1500m for both genders.
The event entry quotas for the individual distances will be determined by the Special Olympic Qualification Classification (SOQC) based on results from the different ISU World Cup Speed Skating Competitions and the full details are available in ISU Communication 2405.
For full entry lists and further information regarding the ISU World Cup Speed Skating Series please visit: isu.org/speed-skating. Results are here and you can follow the discussion on social media by using #SpeedSkating.
