Laurent Dubreuil (CAN) races away at the ISU World Speed Skating Sprint Championships in Inzell, Germany © ISU
Laurent Dubreuil (CAN) took a narrow lead on the first day of the ISU World Speed Skating Sprint Championships in Inzell, Germany on Thursday. The 31-year-old from Quebec won the 500m and retained his lead in the standings with a solid 1000m performance, finishing sixth. Ning Zhongyan (CHN) is ranked second by just .03s in tomorrow’s 500m, with Jenning de Boo (NED) third by .17s.
“I’m still ahead, but it’s so little that it’s basically tied between me and Ning,” Dubreuil said.
Dubreuil ‘was hoping for a bigger lead’
Laurent Dubreuil (CAN) started the tournament with first place in the shortest distance, but his winning time of 34.47s was not what the Canadian 500m specialist had hoped for. Coming off a false start, he managed to set the second-fastest opener of the field in 9.53s, .02s behind pair-mate Kim Jun-Ho (KOR). Dubreuil had a difficult first corner, however. He still managed to chase Kim down on the backstraight but never reached the speed he felt he could have.
“In the first corner I didn’t accelerate as much as I wanted, and then in the second corner I was a bit careful,” Dubreuil explained. Crossing the line, he seemed disappointed.
“I was hoping for a bigger lead,” Dubreuil said. “Ning had skated 4.8 (34.82s) and Kjeld Nuis (NED) had skated 4.9 (34.96), so I felt like, oh sh*t.”
Laurent Dubreuil (CAN) thanks the crowd after winning the Men's 1st 500m in Inzell, Germany © ISU
Ning eventually finished fifth in the 500m and Nuis came in ninth. Silver and bronze in the shortest distance went to Marek Kania (POL) and Jenning de Boo (NED), who finished at just .09s and .18s behind Debreuil, respectively. Cho Sanghyeok (KOR) took fourth place in 34.81s. Dubreuil’s pair-mate Kim eventually set 34.82s to come in joint-fifth with Ning.
Kania was happy to take 500m silver, even though he dropped to fifth place in the ranking after coming in 15th in the 1000m.
“I expected to be good this tournament but I didn’t expect to be that good,“ the Polish 24-year-old said about his 500m race. “The 1000m is different. My 1000m is not great.
“Beforehand I thought finishing top-10 in the tournament would be very good, but now I’m fifth so I hope to keep it up tomorrow.”
Marek Kania (POL) takes silver in the Men's 1st 500m in Inzell, Germany © ISU
Ning strikes back
Ning kept Dubreuil in sight with his sub-35s finish in the 500m and struck back in the 1000m. The silver medalist from last month’s World Single Distances Championships won the double distance in 1:07.67, beating surprise silver medalist Mathias Vosté (BEL) by 18s.
Nuis came third in the 1000m. Posting 1:07.90, he gained back over half a second on Dubreuil to come in fourth in the classification after the first day.
Zhongyan Ning (CHN) celebrates his victory in the Men's 1st 1000m in Inzell, Germany © ISU
Dubreuil faced Dutch youngster Jenning de Boo in the 1000m. The Canadian 500m specialist was still ahead at the 600m split, but De Boo reeled him in and overtook Dubreuil on the last corner to set 1:08.28, finishing joint-fourth with Håvard Lorentzen (NOR) in the double distance. The Norwegian 2018 Olympic 500m champion announced his retirement from Speed Skating after the Inzell tournament, and he was happy to record a competitive result.
Beating Dubreuil in the 1000m, De Boo put himself in the mix for the World Sprint title on his debut. The 20-year-old Dutchman is ranked third, .17s behind Dubreuil in Friday’s 500m.
De Boo said:
“I heard I’m pretty close. My coaches told me so. I leave the calculations up to them. I’m just trying to recover and I hope to skate a better 500m tomorrow. I just want to win every race and if I manage to, I’ll end up high in the ranking automatically.”
(L-R) Mathias Voste (BEL), Zhongyan Ning (CHN) and Kjeld Nuis (NED) on the Men's 1st 1000m podium in Inzell, Germany © ISU
Dubreuil wants to be second-best sprinter in the world
Although he had felt he was the outright favorite for the World Sprint title after Jordan Stolz (USA) decided not to skate the Sprint Championships, choosing instead to fully focus on the Allround tournament on Saturday and Sunday, Dubreuil was still a bit surprised to be in the lead after the first day. The Canadian had been seriously ill after the World Single Distances Championships in Calgary (CAN) last month.
“I actually only trained one day last week”, Dubreuil said. “I had a throat infection and I just finished my anti-biotics yesterday.”
“If you would have told me straight after [the World Single Distances Championships] that Jordan (Stolz) was not going to skate at the World Sprint Championships, and you would have asked me about my chances, I would have said that I thought I was going to win. But after the whole sickness thing, I didn’t think that anymore.
“I just hoped to come here and have a chance.
“I’m happy to race. I hope I sleep well and recover to show up with good legs again tomorrow.”
Yet, even if he wins, Dubreuil wouldn’t consider himself the best sprinter in the world.
“I would like to win, and if I win, I would be the World Champion, but we all know who the best sprinter is and his name is Jordan Stolz. Him doing the Allrounds just opens it up for us in the Sprint Championships.”
Jordan Stolz (USA) prepares during the 2023 ISU World Speed Skating Championships in Heerenveen (NED) © ISU
At age 19, Stolz won the 500m, 1000m and 1500m for the second year in a row at the World Single Distances Championships in Calgary last month.
“He is doing a different sport than us,” Dubreuil said. “He’s just so much better. I hope he wins the Allround tournament. I think what Jordan is doing is amazing for Speed Skating, I’m cheering for him. It would be a legendary achievement to be the 500m World Champion and win the World Allround title in the same year. That’s something we’ve never seen in our lives. Eric Heiden (USA) did it and we [the current generation of top skaters] weren’t even born back then.”
Speed Skating tradition
Although the single distance format tends to get more attention because it’s Olympic style, the long track Speed Skating championships were traditionally decided by racing multiple distance tournaments. The first ISU World Allround Speed Skating Championships were held in 1893, when Jaap Eden (NED) took the title in Amsterdam (NED). The first World Single Distances Championships were held over a century later in Hamar (NOR) in 1996.
In the traditional Allround format skaters a classification is made up after four distances. Men skate the 500m and the 5000m on the first day and the 1500m and the 10,000m on the second. The women’s distances are 500m, 3000m, 1500m and 5000m.
The World Sprint Championships were first held in 1970. In this format both the men and the women skate the 500m and the 1000m twice.
In Inzell (GER), the Sprint Championships are held on Thursday and Friday, and the Allround Championships are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.
Samalog score
In both the Sprint and the Allround tournaments the final ranking is based on the so-called samalog score over four distances. The samalog system converts times into points, with the 500m as starting point. For a 500m race, the number of seconds counts as the number of points. For the 1000m the number of seconds is divided by two to calculate the number of points; for the 1500m it’s divided by three, for the 3000m by six, for the 5000m by 10 and for the 10,000m by 20.
Program:
Thursday 7 March 2024
19:00 - 1st 500m Women
19:00 - 1st 500m Men
19:00 - 1st 1000m Women
19:00 - 1st 1000m Men
Friday 8 March 2024
18:30 - 2nd 500m Women
18:30 - 2nd 500m Men
18:30 - 2nd 1000m Women
18:30 - 2nd 1000m Men
Saturday 9 March 2024
12:45 - 500m Women
12:45 - 500m Men
12:45 - 3000m Women
12:45 - 5000m Men
Sunday 10 March 2024
13:15 - 1500m Women
13:15 - 1500m Men
13:15 - 5000m Women
13:15 - 10000m Men
