Heerenveen, The Netherlands

 

#SpeedSkating

He had been too tired to sleep last night, but Laurent Dubreuil (CAN) managed to recharge himself for one final effort on Sunday. Coming in fourth in the 500m, the Canadian secured the World Cup Trophy in the shortest distance. Tatsuya Shinhama (JPN) won the last race to finish a disappointing season on a high note. Kjeld Nuis (NED) added a 1500m gold to Saturday’s 1000m win, but Joey Mantia (USA) went home with the 1500m World Cup Trophy. Bart Swings (BEL) finished this season’s action securing the Mass Start Trophy with a confident win in the final race.

Dubreuil makes it count

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Laurent Dubreuil, left, by Joosep Martinson © International Skating Union

Dubreuil went into the final weekend leading the men’s 500m World Cup, but had a last minute flight from Oslo to Amsterdam to compete on Saturday, after a Covid infection last week. Arriving straight from the airport on the Thialf ice on Saturday, he managed to come in second in the penultimate race. Recovering for Sunday had not been easy.

“I was so tired, but too tired to sleep well. I had a really bad night of sleep, exhausted from the whole thing,” he said. “Physically, I felt better today but mentally, I was just so I tired. I tried to use the crowd and race fast.”

Dubreuil was 0.10 slower than he had been on Saturday. Finishing in 34.63s, he needed 0.15s more than Shinhama, who took his second win of the season. Piotr Michalski (POL) took the season’s last silver medal and Wataru Morishige (JPN) seized bronze on Sunday.

“It was not the best of races,” Dubreuil said. “But I also knew that I just needed to finish, and tenth place or eleventh would have been good enough (to win the 500m World Cup Trophy). 

“When I saw the times, I was comfortable, just skating smooth, and I could have gone a bit faster, but I didn't take the risk. The most important was to finish the job I've done all season.”

Dubreuil kept Shinhama and Morishige behind in the season’s 500m ranking. Dubreuil said: “That’s something I'm very proud of. Ever since my daughter was born, I tell my wife that when I leave, I want to make it count.” 

In Heerenveen he had the best of both worlds, making it count and having his wife and daughter at his side to join in the celebrations. “We're going to Spain for two weeks and a half, tomorrow. It’s going to be a well-deserved vacation, because it's been a long last few months without them,” he said.

Shinhama will be back

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Joosep Martinson © International Skating Union

Tatsuya Shinhama looked back on a season of ups and downs. Having won two out of four races in the first two World Cup weekends, he dropped the ball in January and February only to come back with two victories in the final weekend. 

“At the (third) World Cup in Salt Lake City, I had a problem with my body,” he said. “I lost a little bit of a balance (during the race), and afterwards, I felt a little bit of pain, so that’s why I was out of shape in Calgary (fourth World Cup).”

Winning the final two races of the season reignited his racing fire, however, and Shinhama is ready to take on Dubreuil in the coming years.

“My final goal is to win all the titles in speed skating,” he said. “I already won the World Sprint Championships, but I don't have titles in the World Single Distance Championships and the Olympic Games, so that would be my next goal, and next season there will be a World Single Distance Championships. I'm aiming at the 500m gold and I also like to try in the 1000m.”

Nuis and Krol restore order

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Thomas Krol by Joosep Martinson © International Skating Union

Kjeld Nuis and Thomas Krol (NED) restored the order in the 1500m. The Olympic gold and silver medalists from the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games were not even in the top 10 of the 1500m ranking after the first four World Cups, but they reigned supreme in the final 1500m race of the season. 

Nuis hammered out a time of 1 minute and 43.48 seconds to take gold and Krol snatched silver in 1:43.79. Canada’s Connor Howe (CAN) clocked 1:44.39 to complete the podium. Joey Mantia (USA) finished in 1:47.71 to come twelfth, which was enough to take home the World Cup Trophy. 

Having restored the order, Nuis had an explanation for his mediocre 1500m races at the start of the World Cup season, saying: “I can only speak for myself (not for Krol). I had a technical issue, and ahead of the first first World Cups, I had trained just a bit too hard.” 

Nuis enjoyed winning in front of a packed Thialf crowd and was already thinking about the future. “I hope to hold on to this, to try and fight it out with Thomas (in the middle distances) up to Milan (2026 Olympic Games),” he said.

First the Olympic 1500m Champion is off to Norway. “I’ll try to break the World Speed Skating Speed record again,” he said. In 2018, Nuis managed to skate 93km/h. Now he thinks he can break the 100km/h barrier. “They’ve been working on the track for three months. It’s three kilometer long, ten meters wide, we’ll have an awesome car and an improved windshield for the drag. It’s going to be amazing.”

Swings reigns supreme in Mass Start

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Bart Swings, right, by Joosep Martinson © International Skating Union

Bart Swings (BEL) reigned supreme in the Mass Start, as he has during the whole season. The Beijing Olympic Mass Start Champion outsprinted Andrea Giovannini (ITA) and Jorrit Bergsma (NED) in the final lap and thus secured the World Cup Trophy that was rightfully his. 

“I could control the race,” he explained. “I had hoped to be able to get away from the pack in a small group, but we did not manage to. In the end we did get away with a small group for the final sprint and then I knew it was going to be all right for me.”

ISU World Cup Speed Skating Standings 500m Men

ISU World Cup Speed Skating Standings 1500m Men

ISU World Cup Speed Skating Standings Mass Start Men