Alumni

20091207: Women's speed skating team sets world record

CALGARY - Canada's women's team raced to a world record en route to gold in the team pursuit Sunday to continue a strong showing for the Canadians at a long-track speed skating World Cup.

Christine Nesbitt won gold in the women's 1,000 metres earlier in the day while Denny Morrison won bronze in the men's race.

Canadian Christine Nesbitt, from London, Ont., skates to a second-place finish during the women’s 1,500-metre event in World Cup speed skating competition in Calgary

Japan was second in 2:59.79, while Germany took the bronze in 3:00.25.

The previous world record was set in 2005 at Calgary by Daniela Anschutz Thoms, Annie Friesinger-Postma and Claudia Pechstein.

The gold was the second victory of the day for Nesbitt, who skated 1:14.03 to win the 1,000 at the Olympic Oval, adding to the silver she won in the 1,500 Saturday.

Annette Gerritsen of the Netherlands was second in 1:14.48, while Monique Angermueller of Germany took the bronze in 1:14.68. Kristina Groves of Ottawa, a gold medallist in the 1,500 Saturday, ended up fourth in 1:14.83.

Morrison, from Fort St. John, B.C., picked up his second bronze of the weekend shortly after, clocking 1:07.77. He also won bronze in the 1,500 Friday.

Shani Davis of the U.S. won the 1,000 in a track record time of 1:06.91, well ahead of South Korea's Lee Kyou-Hyuk at 1:07.61.

Jamie Gregg of Edmonton, 11th at 1:08.33, added a surprise bronze medal in the men's 500 Friday to give the national team six trips to the podium over the weekend ahead of the two team pursuit races later Sunday.

Earlier, Jeremy Wotherspoon of Red Deer, Alta., finished second in the men's B group 1,000 with a time of 1:08.22. It was a strong followup to his season World Cup debut Saturday, when he posted the seventh- fastest time overall in the men's 500.

They were his first races since breaking his left arm in six spots during last year's season-opening World Cup in Berlin and provided him with strong building blocks heading into next week's World Cup in Salt Lake City.

"I was really happy with the acceleration at the start, got some good early speed and pretty easy speed," said Wotherspoon. "I'm still not quite used to that speed, I came out of the second turn pretty wide, I didn't lose speed but just went extra distance, other than that I was happy to get that in. It was good practice on the new equipment at a high speed."

"That's the best training."

Wotherspoon, who will race in the A group 1,000 next weekend and perhaps in the 500 again, will need to now ratchet things up a bit according to national sprint group coach Mike Crowe.

As printed in the KW Record
http://www.therecord.com