Seoul / Republic of Korea

With Chinese, Russian, Czech and Italian victories, there was nothing to be seen of last season’s Dutch dominance on the final day of the second leg of the ISU World Cup Speed Skating series in Seoul. The Korean World Cup weekend finished with the Ladies’ 1000m, the men’s second 500m, and the Mass Start for both men and Ladies. In total eight different nationalities topped the podiums.

Qishi Li (CHN) celebrates first World Cup win
In the Ladies’ 1000m Qishi Li won her first career World Cup race. Last week she had her first podium appearance with a bronze medal. In Seoul her track record of 1:16.96 was unattainable for Marrit Leenstra (NED), who came second in 1:17.06. Karolina Erbanová (CZE) had her second podium finish of the weekend with bronze in 1:17.33.

Ivanie Blondin (CAN) set 1:18.12 in the second pair. Thanks to a fast 30.4 final lap this time stood until Nao Kodaira set 1:17.88 in the seventh pair. Kodaira had the fastest opener of the field with 18.22 and 28.3 in the first lap, but collapsed and almost lost her advantage in the final lap.

In the eighth pair Erbanová, who like Kodaira is coached by Marianne Timmer, opened in 18.23. She managed to keep her losses limited and with laps of 28.5 and 30.5 arrived in 1:17.33.

The penultimate pair featured Olympic Champion Hong Zhang (CHN), who was defeated by compatriot Li. After a 18.69 opener, Li proceeded with a 28.0 lap, to finish with a 30.1 lap. Leenstra took on Ireen Wüst (NED) in the final pair and Wüst could not keep up with her. Leenstra opened in 18.36, proceeded with 28.4 and 30.2 laps, and had to settle for silver. Wüst only came sixth in 1:18.17.

Leenstra leads the World Cup ranking with 180 points, followed by Li with 170, Wüst with 125 and Erbanová with 115 points. Leenstra and Wüst now both have 36 points to lead the Grand World Cup ranking.

Kulizhnikov (RUS) strikes again in the 500m, Mo (KOR) and Dubreuil (CAN) on podium
Pavel Kulizhnikov took his third 500m victory with 35.18. Tae-Bum Mo won silver in 35.32, just 0.03 ahead of Laurent Dubreuil from Canada.

Skating on home ice 19-year-old Korean Jun-Ho Kim set a fast 35.48 in the fourth pair. His time stood until Dubreuil skated 35.35 in the eighth pair. The Canadian made the difference with a 25.5 full lap. Jan Smeekens (NED) opened a little faster, but missed Dubreuil’s time by 0.04. Ruslan Murashov (RUS), who was third in the World Cup ranking, finished in 35.44 to end up fifth.

In the penultimate pair Mo had a similar race as Dubreuil, opening 0.03 faster and keeping that exact advantage over the full lap to finish in 35.32. In the final pair Kulizhnikov made the difference with the fastest full lap of the field in 25.4. After three different nationalities in the Ladies’ podium, three different nationalities topped the Men’s podium as well.

Kulizhnikov leads the World Cup with 380 points, Smeekens is still second with 268 and Murashov third with 250. Kulizhnikov also leads the ranking for the Grand World Cup with 39 points.

Victory in fast Mass Start Ladies for Martina Sábliková (CZE)
Martina Sábliková (CZE) won the second Mass Start event this season ahead of Irene Schouten (NED) and Ivanie Blondin (CAN). The winner needed only 7:42.96 to reach the finish line, which was even faster than the men’s race. Last week’s Ladies’ mass start finished in 8:33.

From the very start tactics were different from last week. For the Netherlands, Rixt Meijer escaped and secured the first intermediate sprint points, but the pack reeled her in. In the second sprint, Jelena Peeters (BEL) took the five points and Meijer three.

After those eight laps, good friends Claudia Pechstein (GER) and Sábliková left like a fast tandem and the pack did not react immediately, partly disturbed by a crash of Peeters. The numbers one and two of the 5000m soon had a 150 meter gap. Sáblikova got the 5 points ahead of Pechstein with four laps to go. With three laps to go Pechstein got tired and had to let her friend go.

Sábliková went on to take the solo victory and Pechstein was overtaken by the sprinting pack to finish fourth. Schouten won the sprint of the pack ahead of last week’s winner Blondin.

Italian victory in Mass Start Men
Andrea Giovannini (ITA) won the men’s Mass Start. Latvian Harald Silovs came second and last week’s winner Seung-Hoon Lee (KOR) finished in third place. Austrians Linus Heidegger and Bram Smallenbroek finished fourth and fifth.

The race had a similar scenario to the ladies‘ race, but this time the escapees were no established long distance skaters. The battle started when Smallenbroek escaped for the first sprint points. He got company from countryman Linus Heidegger and Polish Robert Cieslak. Ryosuke Tsuchiya (JPN) and Giovannini joined the lead group, while the favourites waited in the pack to save power.

The second sprint was for Giovannini, followed by Tsuchiya and Heidegger. After those eight laps, cooperation among the leaders deteriorated. Smallenbroek straightened his back and fell back in the pack, Giovannini was determined to continue and got Heidegger with him. Three seconds behind them Tsuchiya and Cieslak joined forces. In the pack, the Germans started to chase, soon to be helped by the Norwegians. The gap was too large however. With two laps to go, Giovannini sprinted away from Heidegger. The Italian succeeded to stay ahead of the sprinting pack, which swallowed Heidegger. Haralds Silovs outsprinted favourite Lee for the silver medal.

Lee leads the World Cup with 170 points, Andrea Giovannini is second with 140 points and Cheol-Min Kim third with 116 points.

The ISU World Cup Speed Skating Series continues in two weeks in Berlin (GER) on December 5-7, 2014.