World record for Jeremy Wotherspoon at speed skating World Cup
Date: Vendredi, novembre 09 @ 21:20:03 PST :: Topic: long track
KEARNS, Utah – Jeremy Wotherspoon of Red Deer, Alta., broke the world
record in the men’s 500 metres on Friday to open the World Cup season
in long track speed skating. Denny Morrison of Fort St. John, B.C.,
added a silver in Canadian record time in the 1,500. (SSC)
Wotherspoon clocked 34.03 seconds to smash the previous world mark
of 34.25 set here by Kang Seok-Lee of South Korea at the world
championships last March. It was his career-leading 58th World Cup
victory. Lee also went under his previous mark clocking 34.20 and
Kyou-Hyuk Lee of South Korea was third in 34.31.
‘’It feels really good to get going like this right off the bat,’’ said
Wotherspoon, 31, who sat out last season to ponder his skating future.
‘’It’s hard to pinpoint exactly the key areas of my race. You sort of
have to have everything in the race go pretty well. What I was most
focused on was entering my turns a little better and getting off the
start line really well and I did that well today.’’
Wotherspoon said an emphasis on improving technique has been beneficial.
‘’The
key to speed skating is taking everything you have and putting it into
the ice. When you make a positive change in your technique it affects
every stride in the race and it adds up to a big difference. Technique
is what makes you skate fast.’’
Mike Ireland of Winnipeg was
16th. In the B Group race, Vincent Labrie of St-Romuald, Que., and
Mark Nielsen of Calgary tied for 2nd while Morrison was 4th.
In
the men’s 1,500, Erben Wennemars of the Netherlands equalled the
1:42.32 world record time for the gold medal. Morrison took the silver
medal in a Canadian record 1:42.79. That eclipsed his previous
national mark of 1:42.97 set here in 2005. Shani Davis of the U.S.,
now the co-world record owner, was third in 1:42.92.
‘’I was
really happy with my result,’’ said Morrison, 22, a double medallist at
the world championships last year. ‘’What helped me the most for the
1,500 was just getting a proper warm up. That led me to a good feel on
the ice and eventually a good race.’’
Steven Elm of Red Deer
was eighth, Arne Dankers of Calgary 12th and François Olivier-Roberge
of St-Nicolas, Que., 13th. Jeff Kitura of Langley, B.C., was 23rd.
In
the women’s 1,000, Christine Nesbitt of London, Ont., missed a podium
berth by 0.01 seconds finishing fourth in 1:14.32. Shannon Rempel,
Cindy Klassen and Brittany Schussler, all of Winnipeg , were ninth,
11th and 13th.
Beixing Wang of China won both the 500 and
1,000-metre women’s races. In the 500, Nesbitt was 15th, Rempel 19th,
Kim Weger of Regina 23rd and Klassen 27th. Danielle Wotherspoon of Red
Deer was sixth in the B race.
Credit: www.speedskating.ca
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