Ireen Wüst was crowned European Champion in the Uralnaya Molniya ice rink in Chelyabinsk on Sunday. Wüst took her fourth European title. Martina Sábliková (CZE) had to settle for silver. Linda de Vries (NED) took bronze.
In total 18 ladies and 21 men from 16 different European countries fought for European glory. Three track records were broken, in the 1500m and the 5000m ladies and the 10.000m men. Natalia Voronina (RUS) was the only one to skate personal best times (in both the 1500m and the 5000). Skaters from five different countries made the distance podia on Sunday, making it seven the entire weekend. Kramer now has 48 track records in the world, including the Big Combination, and that in itself is a record.
Ladies
Wüst and Sábliková were first and second after the first day, more or less as expected. The battle for the third spot on the podium was led by Linda de Vries, with Ida Njåtun (NOR), Julia Skokova (RUS) and Jorien Voorhuis chasing. Olga Graf (RUS), traditionally strong in the long distances, was also within striking distance.
1500m
Russians Graf and Voronina were the first to impress in the sixth pair of the 1500m. Voronina skated a personal best time (2:01.69) to qualify for the final 5000m and her pair mate was even three seconds faster. Graf set 1:58.60 and climbed to rank six, because Skokova (1:59.27) lost too much time in the next pair. Voorhuis also Skokova with 120.603 points after 1:59.01.
Njåtun and De Vries battled for rank three in the penultimate pair. The Norwegian won the race, with a new best time of 1:58.09, but with 1:58.33 De Vries stayed ahead of Njåtun in the ranking. De Vries had 120.743 points and Njåtun 120.911.
The final 1500m pair featured the two top rivals Wüst and Sábliková. The Dutch leader started aggressively and left Sábliková far behind to improve her own track record by a second to 1:56.05. Sáblikova was more cautious in her opening, but set a decent time (1:58.24) and skated the the fastest last lap (31.2) of the field. She finished between Njåtun and De Vries in third place. With her two second win over Njåtun, and her even bigger gain on Sábliková, Wüst was confident heading into the 5000m.
Wüst: “The race went well. For myself I needed to skate a brilliant 1500m, so fast that Sábliková could not benefit in the end, and that plan succeeded. I was not satisfied with my 3000m yesterday. It’s an allround tournament, there is always a lesser race, then I get angry and I used that energy to skate fast. 11.7 should be enough margin heading into the 5000m. The last 5k I skated against Sábliková was at the Olympics and the difference was only 3 or 4 seconds.”
De Vries: “I’ve lost nothing, that is good, although it was not an easy race. I still need to skate a good race, but there is a very big chance I will end up on the podium.”
5000m
In the final distance, Voronina set another personal best time and climbed in the ranking because pair mate Skokova crashed and finished more than a lap later, to end up 8th in the overall classification.
Voorhuis and Graf, ranked 6 and 5, took the ice in the second pair and the Russian easily won to pass the Dutch lady in the ranking. With support of the Russian crowd Graf managed to skate lap times of 33 in the first half of the race. The laps went up to 34.2, but Graf kept on winning time on Voorhuis. The two final laps were a bit of a struggle, but Graf still took 18 seconds off the track record, finishing in 7:09.11. She secured a top-5 finish with 164.532 points. Voorhuis had 165.003.
The penultimate pair featured De Vries and Njåtun. De Vries gained on Graf in her opening and then copied the schedule of the Russian, while Njåtun’s laps went up halfway. In the last three laps, De Vries lost half a second per lap. Despite finishing behind Graf in 7:09.52, she secured a bronze medal on the overall podium with 163.695 points. Njåtun struggled and finished in 7:21.82 with four 36 laps, to drop behind Graf and Voorhuis with 165.093 points in the overall classification.
The final pair decided over silver and gold. Wüst (20.84) opened faster than Sábliková (21.29) and attacked with a few quick laps from the start. Sábliková, who had to make up a second per lap, stayed behind Wüst, crossing in her slipstream. After the first 1000m, Sábliková took on the battle, but she did not seem to want anything else than the 5000m win. Wüst managed to keep 33s until 3400m, and only in the final four laps Sábliková took a bigger margin, but Wüst never was slower than 34.1. Sábliková brought the track record to 7:00.70. With 7:05.63 Wüst came second in the 5000m, but it was more than sufficient for her fourth European title. Wüst gathered 161.734 points, Sábliková 162.414.
Wüst: “I like it when Sábliková attacks and I can counter, but now it was good as well. As long as I can stay with her the first 3km, it’s ok. I don’t think she could go any faster. In these conditions 7.00 is very fast. This 5k was much better than yesterday’s 3k. I want to race four good distances. To screw it up in the distance in which I am Olympic champion is pretty bad. Now I am happy to be European Champion. Every title is a title. I have a new team and new coaches and I am happy I can do it again with a different kind of training and environment. I would skate on such a small rink with a big crowd like this any time. The enthusiastic supporters made up for a fantastic atmosphere.”
Sábliková: “I am happy. Wüst is really strong in the 1500m. I know that so it was a nice fight. My cycling accident this summer doesn’t bother me anymore. I feel good now.”
On the question, whether she was too cautious in the 5000m: “Maybe it looked like that, but I was so tired after the 1500m. When I stood at the start of the 5000m, I felt like going to bed. I had to be cautious at the beginning. I think I could have done 6:58 or 6:57, but still Ireen would have won. I am satisfied.”
De Vries: “It’s nice to be on the podium and to be sure of racing the World Championships. To reach the podium was my goal today. I knew that more was impossible, so but keeping third place was good. I don’t like the 5k usually, but this tournament it was the nicest distance for me. I was happy I could keep it flat and even.”
In her speech at the banquet after the competition, Wüst asked for a minute of silence for the victims in France.
ISU European Speed Skating Championships – Chelyabinsk (RUS) - Medal Winners day 2
1500m Ladies
|
1 |
Ireen Wüst |
NED |
1:56.05 TR |
|
2 |
Ida Njåtun |
NOR |
1:58.09 |
|
3 |
Martina Sábliková |
CZE |
1:58.24 |
5000m Ladies
|
1 |
Martina Sábliková |
CZE |
7:00.70 TR |
|
2 |
Ireen Wüst |
NED |
7:05.63 |
|
3 |
Olga Graf |
RUS |
7:09.10 TR |
TOTAL Ladies
|
1 |
Ireen Wüst |
NED |
161.734 39.24(1)-4:07.49(2)-1:56.05(1)-7:05.63(2) |
|
2 |
Martina Sábliková |
CZE |
162.414 40.06(6)-4:05.23(1)-1:58.24(3)-7:00.70(1) |
|
3 |
Linda de Vries |
NED |
163.695 40.05(5)-4:07.50(3)-1:58.33(4)-7:09.52(4) |
