Kjeld Nuis (NED) finally managed to live up to his billing as Olympic 1500m champion by winning his first World Cup race of the season at the same distance in Calgary (CAN) on Friday. Being paired with Jordan Stolz (USA) gave him just a little extra motivation, and his time of 1 minute and 42.59s was 0.60s ahead of the American youngster.
Later on Friday, Nuis also took silver with the Dutch Team Sprint squad, who trailed gold medalists Poland by just 0.03s.
Nuis and Stolz hope there’s more to come
Triple-Olympic gold medalist Nuis had missed qualification for the first World Cup this season due to injury at the Dutch trials. Coming back on a wildcard in Heerenveen, he took silver at the second leg, and last week in the third leg, also in Calgary, Nuis had to settle for bronze.
Kjeld Nuis (NED) found motivation in 1500m pair-mate Jordan Stolz (USA) to win his first gold of this World Cup season. ©ISU
“They were joking that I didn’t really want to [win] last week,” Nuis said. “I didn’t skate with courage, and it’s not an excuse, but I also never had an opponent I could really race with.”
In Nuis’ absence, Stolz had won the 1500m in a new track record in Stavanger (NOR) at the first World Cup event of the season.
“[Stolz] was the man to look at in the early season,” Nuis said. “He was the man everyone wrote about and I said it myself too, so this was a race I could really motivate myself for.”
Nuis turned his motivation into a spectacular 23.33 opener. Only Thomas Krol (NED) was faster at the 300m split, but Nuis’ first and second lap of 24.81s and 26.09 were unmatched.
“It was a very good race,” Nuis said. “I was really focused on that first 1100m. Then I saw that I would cross in front of him [on the final backstretch heading into the last inner corner], and that’s when the tension dropped a little. That last lap was not good, but then again, I won by 0.6s. The last time I won with such a big gap was at the PyeongChang Olympics [in 2018].”
It was the first time Nuis drew versus Stolz in the same pairing.
“That was fun, I hope there’s many more to come,” he said.
Stolz had also enjoyed racing against Nuis. “It’s like a milestone. I’m among the really good skaters, but he’s the Olympic champion,” said the 18-year-old American, who took silver in 1:43.19.
Jordan Stolz (USA) was the man in form after setting a new track record at the World Cup opener in Stavanger (NOR). ©ISU
“It was a good race. It didn't really feel any different that Kjeld was racing with me. Obviously we [both] had some kind of a plan of what we're going to do in the race. His worked out a bit better. He's probably a little bit stronger than me right now.”
Thomas Krol took bronze in 1:43.34. The Olympic silver medalist had been struggling with his form so far this season, and he was happy to be back on the podium after coming seventh last week.
“It’s a lot better than last week, and it’s good to be back on the podium,” said Krol.
“I hope we’ll be able to fight for the medals again at the World Championships, but I’ve got work to do. The gap is too big at the moment, I just didn’t have the legs in the final lap.”
Poland takes the Team Sprint
Poland won the men’s Team Sprint event in a new national record time of 1 minute and 18.90s. Marek Kania, Piotr Michalski and Damian Zurek edged out the Netherlands (Merijn Scheperkamp, Hein Otterspeer, Kjeld Nuis) by a 0.03s margin. Canada (Christopher Fiola, Laurent Dubreuil, Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu) came third in 1:19.40.
A fast first lap helped Poland's Kania, Michalski and Zurek to take Team Sprint gold by the smallest of margins. ©ISU
With Kania as their first skater, Poland made the difference in the first lap, setting 28.27s versus 28.61s for the Dutch and 28.59s for the Canadians.
Michalski said: “I didn't check the times, but I felt really good on the warm-up today so we just decided to go for it and it also felt great in the race. It gives us as a team good confidence for the next [race].
“The Team Sprint is actually really important to us. We hope to have this as an Olympic competition. Unfortunately, it’s still not in the Olympics, but maybe, we'll see. We built a strong sprint team in the past couple of years, and this is just the result of hard work and time.”
Scheperkamp (NED) knew why the Dutch came up a little short.
“Hein [Otterspeer] and me, we were fresh at the start, but Kjeld [Nuis] had already skated a 1500m, then it’s tough to keep up with guys who can open 9.6s [in the first 100m of a 500m].”
Like Michalski, the Dutchman really likes the Team Sprint event. “To me it’s important. I haven’t qualified to skate the 1000m [at the World Cups], so apart from the 500m, this is my only race this weekend,” he said.
“And I really think it’s a great event. There’s no race in which we reach higher speeds than this one.”
The Dutch trio of Scheperkamp, Otterspeer and Nuis took silver with the Canadians taking bronze. ©ISU
For Gélinas-Beaulieu (CAN) the Team Sprint was less important, though great fun to race.
“It's not an Olympic event. So as a team, we don't put as much effort into it as in the other distances like the Team Pursuit in which we want to skate together very often during this season and want to think over our strategies. In this race we just want to go out and see how it goes.”
Program
The second of two back-to-back Calgary World Cups starts with the 1500m and the Team Pursuit for Men, and the 500m and 5000m for Women on Friday. On Saturday the Women will skate the 1500m and the Team Sprint, while the Men take on the 500m and the 10,000m, and the Sunday schedule features the 1000m and Mass Start for both genders.
For all information about the ISU World Cup Speed Skating Series, please visit the webpage here.
World Cup Standings - Men
World Cup Standings - Women
Where to watch
Viewers will be able to watch the World Cup sessions (local time) via their national broadcaster/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 here.
ISU World Cup Short Track Speed Skating Series events 2022/23:
Nov 11 - 13, 2022 Stavanger /NOR
Nov 18 - 20, 2022 Heerenveen/ NED
Dec 09 - 11, 2022 Calgary /CAN
Dec 16 - 18, 2022 Calgary /CAN
Feb 10 - 12, 2023 Tomaszów Mazowiecki /POL
Feb 17 - 19, 2023 World Cup Final - Tomaszów Mazowiecki /POL
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