SPEED SKATING first man to win the Mass Start World Cup. Jorrit Bergsma, after winning the final race, was runner-up with 212 points. Jonathan Kuck (USA) was third with 196 points. He won in Heerenveen and finished second in Astana, but then he fell in Berlin and finished fourteenth. Seong-Hoon Lee (KOR) won the first race in Astana but did not make it on the podium.
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european championships
The skaters competed on the beautiful outdoor rink in Budapest (HUN). Martina Sáblíková (CZE) won her fourth European title and Claudia Pechstein (GER) finished with silver. Ireen Wüst (NED), who seemed to struggle outdoors, took bronze while International debutant Linda de Vries (NED) finished fourth. After sitting out the previous season Kramer was in good form and was crowned European champion. Team mate Jan Blokhuijsen followed in second and Håvard Bøkko took the bronze.
world sprint championships
Denny Morrison (CAN)
Out of the 12 races, 9 different winners emerged however with 1 win in Astana and 702 points Tae-Bum Mo (KOR) gathered the most points. Pekka Koskela (FIN) finished in second place with 674 points. He won the first 500 m of the season, and one in Heerenveen. Tucker Fredricks finished third with 646 points, winning twice in Heerenveen. Listed in overall ranking, the other wins were Jan Smeekens (NED), Joji Kato (JPN), Michel Mulder (NED), Jamie Gregg (CAN), Keiichiro Nagashima, and two for Dmitry Lobkov (RUS). 1000 m Men Multiple winner Shani Davis (USA) and last year’s winner Stefan Groothuis (NED) battled it out for the title and it is not until the decisive final 1000 m race that a winner was crowned. Davis won with 600 points, overtaking Groothuis (580 points) in the last race. Davis won the last four races, Groothuis the first two, the race in between was for Kjeld Nuis (NED), who finished on the podium four more times and finished third overall with 486 points. 1500 m Men Four time reigning World Cup Champion Shani Davis (USA) was dethroned by Håvard Bøkko (NOR). Last year’s World Champion on this dis-
tance won the final race and had four podium finishes and earned a total of 472 points. With three podium finishes Kjeld Nuis won silver with 430 points. Although Davis won two races he finished third, just 5 points behind Nuis. The other three wins were for Ivan Skobrev (RUS), Stefan Groothuis and Wouter Olde Heuvel (NED). 5000/10000 m Men This year was a Dutch podium sweep with all skaters winning two races. Bob de Jong (NED) managed to repeat his achievement of last season by winning the long distance World Cup with 510 points. Sven Kramer (NED), back after a year of absence, finished second with 440 points. Jorrit Bergsma (NED) with 435 completed the Dutch podium. Team Pursuit Men Like in the ladies’ field, the podium was completely different from last season. The Dutch team won three out of four races and therefore won the Team Pursuit World Cup, having accumulated 374 points. Korea was the runner-up with 340 points, Germany third with 300. The Russian team won one race, but did not have enough points to race in the Final. Mass Start Men With 250 points Alexis Contin (FRA) is the
The World Sprint Championships took place on the fast ice of Calgary (CAN) where 2 new world and 17 national records and 68 personal bests were announced. Jing Yu is the first female skater in history to finish under 37 seconds in the 500 m and set a World record of 36.94. She finished just 0.02 points ahead of defending World Sprint Champion Christine Nesbitt (CAN). Nesbitt was the only skater to finish both 1000 m races under 1:13 and to set a new record of 1:12:68 and took the silver. Hong Zhang (CHN) took bronze. Stefan Groothuis (NED) beat four times World Sprint champion Kyou-Hyuk Lee, who took silver. Lee won the first distance, but Groothuis got the necessary points to win with his final 1000 m in 1:06.96. Tae-Bum Mo took bronze.
world allround championships
Sven Kramer and Ireen Wüst won the World Allround Championships in Moscow. In the ladies’ field. Wüst successfully defended her title to become World Allround champion for the third time. Sáblikova stayed ahead of Nesbitt and took silver and Nesbitt got bronze. In the men’s field Kramer won thanks to his victories in the long distances and became the first post-war skater to win the title five times. Jan Blokhuijsen was the runner up, and a third Dutch competitor Koen Verweij, fourth in Budapest, managed to take bronze and managed to edge out Bøkko to fourth. Despite three podium finishes, home favorite and defending champion Ivan Skobrev finished fifth overall.
junior world championships At the Junior World Championships in Obihiro