After winning silver medals in the 1500m and the 500m, Jordan Stolz (USA) concluded the back-to-back World Cup events in Calgary by taking gold in the intermediate distance on Sunday.
The 18-year-old American beat Olympic 1000m Champion Thomas Krol (NED) by 0.44s, while David Bosa (ITA) celebrated his A Division debut at the distance with his career first World Cup medal in third place.
Bart Swings (BEL) finished off the weekend with a powerful sprint for gold after a fast-paced race in the men’s Mass Start.
Stolz nails it on the final lap
Stolz started the season winning the 1000m and the 1500m in Stavanger but crashed out of the 1000m in Heerenveen a week later. During the first World Cup weekend in Calgary, he had also been struggling and failed to make the podium at all, but he managed to turn everything around a week later.
Jordan Stolz (USA) added 1000m gold to his 500m and 1500m silver at this weekend's Calgary World Cup. ©ISU
After his silver medals in the 1500m and the 500m, the American junior felt confident going into the 1000m on Sunday. Skating against Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu (CAN) in the seventh of 10 pairings, Stolz’s first 600m were good, but not exceptionally fast.
Krol, Bosa and even fourth ranked Hein Otterspeer (NED) were all faster at the 600m split, but Stolz was the only one to keep it going. With a final lap of 25.5s he posted the fastest finish by a big margin and with a final time of 1 minute and 6.72s, was the only skater to go under 1:07.
Stolz knew where his improvement had come from after last weekend, as he had been training intensively in Salt Lake City in the run-up to the two Calgary World Cups and needed time to recover.
“When I was in Salt Lake, I was training a lot more, and when I got here, we only had one day [before competition started last week], so I was kind of tired,” he said. “Definitely four days of rest after racing [last week] really helped.
Breaking down his formidable 1000m race, the youngster still saw room for improvement:
“The first lap wasn't that fast because that first inner turn is a little hard to get around going top speed. I feel like it made me lose a little bit, but I'm definitely still had it in the second lap.”
Olympic champion happy to be back
After a bronze medal in the 1500m on Friday, Krol took his first silver medal of this World Cup season in the 1000m. The Olympic 1000m champion had been struggling with his blades since the start of the season.
Thomas Krol (NED) took his first silver medal of the season in the 1000m after struggling to find his form. ©ISU
“It’s a long story,” he began. “I started the season on new blades, but in Heerenveen [during the second World Cup weekend], I switched back to my old blades, the Olympic ones, and I immediately won bronze.
“I thought I had found what was wrong, but last week was disappointing again. This week I just concentrated on staying low and skating well, instead of thinking about results, about winning or losing. It’s a mental game and that went a lot better this weekend.
“I haven’t skated [as well as] I’ve done today. Of course you want to win, and the gap with Jordan is still pretty big, especially in that final lap, but when I just look at myself, I’m really happy with the way I skated today.”
Bosa jumps from B to bronze
David Bosa was the biggest surprise of the day in the 1000m. The 30-year-old Italian was promoted to the A Division after winning the B Division last week and immediately ran away with bronze.
David Bossa (ITA) posted a fast time in last week's B Division 1000m and stepped up to take A Division bronze. ©ISU
“I saw the time last weekend in the A Division. My time in the B Division would have made sixth place in the A Division, so I had good hopes for this week. Last week I almost skated a personal best and this week, I did a personal best [by 0.16s], so I’m very happy.”
Otterspeer takes World Cup lead
World Cup leader Laurent Dubreuil (CAN) finished 11th in 1:07.93, and confessed that a bad cold last week had broken him up in the final lap. Otterspeer, in fourth, took advantage by taking over the lead in the ranking, but the Dutchman was far from happy with his race.
“It’s great to be on top of the ranking and have the World Cup in sight, but today was not so good,” Otterspeer said. “I had a false start, and the rule always is not to make a false in the final pair. The starter judged that I wasn’t standing still, and false is false.
“The race was just not good enough in many ways, and then you’ll end up just outside the podium.”
Thomas Krol and Jordan Stolz are third and fourth in the World Cup ranking, and they are all in striking distance. Stolz thinks it will be hard for him to end up on top.
“Obviously I’m going to miss one World Cup because there’s a junior World Championships, but I still want to be high up in that ranking,” Stolz said.
Swings enjoys hard fought Mass Start win
The men’s Mass Start was fast, but unlike last week’s race, no one was able to escape the bunch. Olympic Champion Bart Swings took control on the final lap and took gold with a strong finish. World Cup leader Andrea Giovannini (ITA) was chasing Swings in the final corner, but was taken down when Lee Seung-Hoon (KOR) crashed.
Swings, also hit by the Korean, struggled to stay on his feet, but managed to hold off Canada’s Connor Howe and Hayden Mayeur on the final straight.
Bart Swings (BEL) takes the line ahead of Candians Howe and Mayeur after a chaotic finish to the Men's Mass Start. ©ISU
Swings had enjoyed the race. “There’s a lot of attacks and it’s difficult to control. It’s tough in the semi-finals already. It’s a different race every week because you never know who will qualify for the final,” he said.
“It was great to see how everyone fought today. Nobody wanted to let anybody else escape from the pack and that’s why it stayed together. I made pace relatively early because I know it’s tough to overtake once you’re at maximum speed on this ice.”
Howe ended up taking silver and Mayeur seized bronze, his career first individual World Cup medal.
“I'm over the moon,” said Mayeur. “This is my first season as a member of the World Cup team, and we're just closing off the fall World Cup coming home with the first individual medal, and I medaled in the team pursuit last weekend as well. So I don't think I could ask for a better last couple of weeks.
Hayden Mayeur (CAN, right) won the first individual medal of his career, taking bronze behind Swings and Howe. ©ISU
Despite being a rookie in the World Cup circuit, Mayeur relied on racing experience to maneuver himself into bronze medal position.
“You can read in the pack when people are kind of about to fall at that speed,” he explained. “Going into that last corner, you can tell that there was some instability in the front of the group. So that kind of changes how you set up your entry because you're anticipating the fall.
“I answered a bit wider, knowing that I might have to cut inside some guys that are going to swing wide or fall, which is what ended up happening.
“It's a lot of keeping your eyes open and staying up on your toes. It's a really tight radius on the corner there and a lot can happen at any second of the race.”
Program
The men’s competition concludes with the 1000m and the Mass Start on Sunday. The ISU World Cup series resumes with the fifth leg on 10-12 February 2023 in Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Poland.
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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