German gold and silver for Nico Ihle and Samuel Schwarz in the Men’s 1000m was the highlight of the second day of the ISU World Cup Speed Skating races in Berlin on Saturday. In the Ladies’ 1000m Brittany Bowe and Heather Richardson topped the podium for the USA. Dutchmen Jorrit Bergsma and Douwe de Vries sandwiched Norwegian Sverre Lunde Pedersen on the 5000m podium and the Dutch ladies continued their winning streak in the Team Pursuit, followed by the strong Polish team. On Saturday 8 skaters improved their personal best times, which adds up to 22 personal bests for the weekend.
American double in 1000m ladies
Both Brittany Bowe and Heather Richardson raced on a wild card because they had not participated in the Asian World Cup races in November. They faced each other in the first pair and fought a fierce battle. Richardson started strong with a 27.3 lap against 27.5, but Bowe made the difference in the final lap with 29.3 against 29.8 to set 1:14.81. Richardson finished in 1:15.14 and nobody was able to come anywhere near.
Only in the final pair, both skaters reached a time below 1:16. Qishi Li (CHN) finished in 1:15.94 and kept Marrit Leenstra (NED) off the podium for the first time this season. Leenstra finished fourth in 1:15.96.
Li leads the World Cup with 240 points, Leenstra is second, also with 240 points. Karolina Erbanová (CZE) is third with 151. Ireen Wüst (NED) did not race in the 1000m in Berlin. She is fourth with 125 points, but still leads the Grand World Cup.
German double at home rink in 1000m men
Not many skaters managed to finish within 1:10 in the Men’s 1000m. The first to do so was Aleksej Yesin (RUS) with 1:09.83 in the third pair. Hein Otterspeer (NED) beat that time in the fifth pair, when he finished in 1:09.56 after a strong first lap of 25.4.
It was not strong enough for victory however. Nico Ihle (GER), who finished fourth in the Olympic 1000m in Sochi, set the fastest opening with 16:54. He took a 0.3 second advantage on Otterspeer, lost 0.1 in the full lap and another tenth of a second in the final lap, but it was enough to set the fastest time in 1:09.49.
In the penultimate pair, Samuel Schwarz (GER) came very close. He opened 16.60, faster than his pair mate, Olympic champion Stefan Groothuis (NED). Schwarz’ first lap was slightly slower than Ihle’s and his last lap slightly faster. His 1:09.53 finish eventually got him a silver medal, just ahead of Otterspeer, who took the bronze. Groothuis set 1:09.90 to end up sixth. Pavel Kulizhnikov (RUS), who had won the first two 1000m races this World Cup season, exploded to equal Ihle’s start in 16.54, but could maintain that pace and finished fifth in 1:09.86.
Kulizhnikov leads the World Cup with 250 points, Schwarz is second with 195. Nuis is third with 171 and Ihle fourth with 164.
Jorrit Bergsma (NED) starts season with win in 5000m
Olympic 10,000m champion Jorrit Bergsma skipped the first two World Cup weekends this season and started on a wild card in the first pair. In absence of Olympic 5000m champion Sven Kramer, Bergsma had to set the standard. With a strong streak of laps between 29.5 and 30.2, he raced to 6:17.59.
Only Douwe de Vries and Sverre Lunde Pedersen could keep up with Bergsma’s pace, but only for
one third of the race. De Vries led the first half of the race, but in the second half the Dutchman could not keep his lap times below 30.5, whereas the Norwegian managed to deliver a chain of laps between 30.1 and 30.3. Pedersen took silver in 6:20.97 and De Vries finished in 6:23.50. He had a nervous wait, but after 6:25.50 for Bart Swings (BEL) in the penultimate pair and 6:25.27 for Bob de Jong (NED) in the final pair, De Vries’ time proved to be good enough for the podium. Aleksandr Rumyantsev (RUS) finished in 6th.
In the B-division the best three skaters were Frank Vreugdenhil (NED) with 6:23.95, Alexis Contin (FRA) with 6:24.70 and Arjan Stroetinga (NED, 6:25.12). They would not have reached the podium in the A-Division, but they were all faster Bob de Jong, who finished fourth time in the A-division.
De Jong still is the leader in the World Cup with 220 points. Rumyantsev is second with 195 and Pedersen is third with 175 points. The Norwegian also jumped up to third (behind Kulizhnikov and Kjeld Nuis, NED) in the Grand World Cup standings.
Dutch ladies win, silver for Polish ladies in Team Pursuit
Olympic champions the Netherlands kept daylight between themselves and the rest of the field in the Team Pursuit. They were the only ones to finish under 3 minutes with 2:59.72. The Dutch rode a very balanced race with lap times gradually rising from 28.3 to 30.1. Their opponents Japan had lap times rising from 28.8 to 30.3 and seemed to be on silver medal pace, but they lost their advantage over Poland with a disappointing 31.1 in the final lap. Japan finished in 3:04.00, behind Poland’s 3:03.83. The Polish Ladies equaled their Olympic silver thanks to a very strong finish with final laps of 30.3 and 30.1.
The Dutch, who are unbeaten for two years, lead the World Cup with 200 points. Japan is second with 150 and Poland third with 130.