Quebec, Canada

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 #SpeedSkating

Kazakhstan’s women have big plans in speed skating. At the ISU Four Continents Championships in Quebec City on Saturday, Nadezhda Morozova and Yekaterina Aydova won gold and silver in the 1500m, and together with junior Alina Dauranova plan to skate the World Cup Team Pursuit in Calgary next week.

Meanwhile Valérie Maltais (CAN) took her second Four Continents title winning the Mass Start at the Gaétan Boucher Oval on Saturday.

Stamina beats speed

Stamina beat speed in the women’s 1500m on Saturday. Sprinter Aydova was the only skater to start with a sub-26-second opener (25.33s) to finish in a time of 1 minute and 57.52s in the fifth of seven pairings.

Morozova set 26.31 at the first split, but being more of an endurance athlete, she paced her race differently. With 29.90s and 31.50s in her final two laps, Morozova made up what she had lost at the start and more. At the finish line she was 1.15s faster than Aydova. Alison Desmarais (CAN) took bronze in 1:58.26.

Nadezhda Morozova KAZ

Nadezhda Morozova (KAZ) paced her 1500m perfectly to add gold to her three Four Continents silver medals. @ ISU

Morozova had already won silver medals in the 1500m and the 3000m at the inaugural Four Continents Championships in Milwaukee in 2020, and added silver in the 3000m in Quebec City on Friday.

“I’m really happy, because this is gold, but I silver is good too,” she said. “[The Four Continents Championships] is a new competition, and I really want to see these championships at the same level as the European Championships, more skaters and more competition to raise the level.”

About half an hour after Morozova had won her 1500m title, she saw her husband Dmitry Morozov (KAZ) take silver in the men’s 1500m.

“Whether he wins gold or silver, that doesn’t matter to me,” she smiled. “For me he’s just the best man there is.”

Stepping stone for Aydova

Aydova was a little bit frustrated after having come fourth in the 500m on Friday.

“That was really sad, because I made some mistakes at the start, but today I managed to have more rest in my mind," she said.

Aydova said she has been struggling with the ice in Quebec City.

“When we got here, I had expected [the track] to be faster but it’s really tough ice. When you skate without a push, your speed goes down. And if you use a lot of power, your legs wear out very fast.

“My distances normally are the 500m and the 1000m. I really like the 1000m so I’m looking forward to tomorrow. My second place today was not bad, but I really need to take first place tomorrow.”

Yekaterina Aydova KAZ

Yekaterina Aydova (KAZ) improved from 4th in the 500m to 2nd in the 1500m ahead of her favourite distance, the 1000m, on Sunday. @ ISU

Aydova is already looking forward to next week too. “This is a really good warm-up for the World Cup in Calgary. This gives me confidence, because I want to grow into the season and improve at every race,” she said.

“In the World Cups I race three distances: 500m, 1000m and 1500m. And this year, we start trying to take on the Team Pursuit and the Team Sprint with Alina Dauranova (KAZ). She’s in Finland for the Junior World Cup, where she won medals last week. Next week she’ll join me and Nadezhda Morozova in Calgary for the Team Pursuit.”

Patient Maltais times it well

Having won her career first international individual long track title in the 3000m on Friday, Valérie Maltais (CAN) added a second in the Mass Start on Saturday.

The race panned out perfectly for the 32-year-old, as Laura Hall (CAN) set up an early attack with Ji Woo Park  (KOR). Rin Kosaka (JPN) chased the two escapees down, bringing along the rest of the pack, and Maltais crushed the field with a powerful final lap to finish half a second ahead of number two Binyu Yang (CHN). Park eventually managed to take bronze, behind the Chinese.

Valerie Maltais CAN Mass Start 4C Dec22 1245345955

Valérie Maltais (CAN) leads the pack in the Women's Mass Start, holding on to win her second gold of the weekend. @ ISU

“I talked with Laura at the beginning of the race,” said Maltais explaining her race plan. “We knew it would be a different race, with only nine people. We thought OK, we can like make a little bit of action if we need to, and my goal was to wait until the end and just try to work on my speed.

“That's what I've been trying to work on in the World Cups too, trying to be more patient. I think I can do many different strategies, I'm good on long distance, but the sprint is not my strongest point tight now.

“I knew I was able to win the race, but it's the way of doing it, the Mass Start is often unpredictable. So, I went out as fast as I could at the end. I think my timing was good today. Everybody was a little bit antsy to go, so I think it was a good time.”

Maltais cherished her second Four Continents title, but she’s got bigger plans this season:

“It's a good weekend. I feel good. I didn't know exactly what to expect physically, coming back from two World Cups and knowing that we have two World Cups [in Calgary in December] we did quite a bit of training when we came back.

“This season, l want to be good at the World Championships, so you need to train. I just rested two days before this competition [the Four Continents Championships]. So I'm really happy to be able to perform at home and especially at this competition.”

 

Schedule 

Friday December 2nd, 2022:       500m (Men and Women), 3000m (Women), 5000m (Men), Team Sprint (Men and Women)

Saturday December 3rd, 2022:  1500m (Men and Women), Mass Start (Men and Women)

Sunday December 4th, 2022:     1000m (Men and Women), Team Pursuit (Men and Women) 

 

Where to Watch

Viewers will be able to watch the races via their national broadcasters’ channel. For countries where there are no broadcasters, the ISU will offer a live stream on the Skating ISU YouTube Channel. You will find the full list on the Where to Watch webpage.

Subscribe to the ISU Newsletter to receive the latest information about events, and to the Skating ISU YouTube Channel to receive notifications when live streams start or new videos are published.

 

For further information on ISU Speed Skating visit https://www.isu.org/speed-skating