‘07 World Sprint Champions Decided
2007 World Overall Long Track Speed Skating Sprint Championships
An international contingency took to the ice in Hamar, Norway, January 20-21, 2007. Long track speed skaters competed for the title of: World Overall Sprint Champion.
Ladies
Representing the women was German skater Anni Friesinger who (no surprise here) claimed the overall title after winning both 1,000m races and posting a new track record. Her total score was helped as well by her two fifth-place 500m finishes. At the end of the weekend, she had a total of 151.935 points and dominated the field as predicted. Annie now joins only three other women ever to have won four world single distance titles, three world all-around titles, and a world sprint title.
Ireen Wust, a skater from the Netherlands, came in second in the 1,000m competitions. These finishes were solid enough to help her to claim the overall silver medal. Her point total reached 152.995.
Canadian cover girl Cindy Klassen rounded out the medal podium with her third place overall title. She lagged behind in the 500m’s, coming in sixteenth on Saturday and eighth on Sunday. True to form, the 2006 Olympic Champion had a bronze-medal finish in the 1,000m races. This brought her overall point total to 153.370, which was good enough for third place overall in this, her first international competition of the season.
Her teammate and friendly rival Kristina Groves came in 15th overall. Contender and winner of both 500’s was German skater Jenny Wolf. She was, unfortunately, DQ’d in the 1,000m on Saturday and therefore unable to place in the all-around – but not before setting another track record in the first 1,000. For the record, as a good sportswoman, she did finish the race she was disqualified in after taking a fall. She just skated in the wrong lanes.
Men
It was a close competition with many men favored to win. Capitalizing on the mathematics of the scoring system, the Overall Men’s Sprint Champion was crowned without having won a race this weekend. South Korean Kyou-Hyuk Lee had a final score of 138.775. According to the winner, he owes his success this weekend to less pressure and more partying. He decided to continue competing for the sheer joy of it after the Olympics. He referred to himself as an old man and disallowed personal expectations to stress him out.
Finnish skater Pekka Koskela won both of the 500’s, posted a new track record, and claimed an all-around second place finish with a score that was just .15 behind the winner. In fact, he led every race of the weekend going into the final. Instead of feeling like he lost the gold medal, he reminded media he won the silver.
Both 1,000 meter competitions races were won by 2006 World All-Around Champion, American Shani Davis. He ended up with the bronze overall title after also skating a track record (despite finishing 12th in the 500.)
Canadian skater Denny Morrison burst onto the World Sprint scene with a third place finish in the 1,000m. His second-day 500 placed him at 16th, which was good enough for a final seventh-place overall standing. This far surpassed his personal goal of coming in in the top 16.
The competition was tight, but not as fierce as it could have been. Chinese and Korean power-houses were missing a few members who stayed behind because of the up-coming Asian Games. Still, track records were set in every race, along with six national records and thirty personal bests.
