 |
| Christine Nesbitt of Canada strains to take a second place during the 1500 meters race women of the Speedskating World Cup at Thialf stadium in Heerenveen, northern Netherlands, Saturday Nov. 14, 2009. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Peter Dejong |
HEERENVEEN, Netherlands - Christine Nesbitt missed out on her third victory of the World Cup season by a mere five-one hundredths of a second Saturday, and initially she was pretty disappointed.
Then she started thinking about it, and the long-track speedskater from London, Ont., found plenty of positives to take from her race in the women’s 1,500 metres. Lots went wrong in the leadup to the event, yet still she was within a couple of strides of another gold.
"I just kind of had a rough week," she told a conference call after clocking one minute 56.74 seconds, just behind Dutchwoman Ireen Wust’s 1:56.69. "I didn’t go into the race super happy or super confident in anything, so I was fighting demons before the race.
"To be able to still be second by such a close margin I think is a really good sign that mentally even if I don’t have my head where it should be, I can still pull off a really good race."
Nesbitt wasn’t the only Canadian to perform well.
Kristina Groves of Ottawa, bouncing back from a so-so effort at the opening World Cup last week in Berlin, posted her first podium finish of the season in third at 1:57.05.
"Last weekend I definitely didn’t put my best skating together, I don’t know why," said Groves. "But that’s actually been pretty good for me because I think I was able to focus on some more productive things this week technically and mentally that have helped."
Cindy Klassen, continuing her comeback from surgery on both knees last year, was 11th Saturday in 1:59.32, while fellow Winnipeger Brittany Schussler was 12th in 1:59.34.
Nesbitt, who won both the 1,000 and 1,500 last weekend, came into this week riding high but all wasn’t well. After enduring some challenges, she wasn’t in an ideal mental state at race-time.
"Being on the road, interacting with different people, sometimes you get sick of people," Nesbitt said. "You don’t always get along with everyone, so, things were just kind of nagging at me a little bit, maybe. I had a hard time trying to focus, sometimes it just happens. It was a good race considering mentally how I was."
Nesbitt skated in the final pairing and was trying to chase down Wust’s time. She knew she had come up short when the Thialf Stadium crowd erupted.
"When you finish a hard race like that, and people cheer when you don’t win," she said, "it’s kind of disheartening."
Nesbitt was also 14th in the women’s 500 in 39.10 seconds, well off the pace set by defending World Cup 500 champion Jenny Wolf, who won in 37.83 despite wobbling on her skates on the final bend.
Wang Beixing of China, the only skater to beat the German over 500 metres this season, was second in 38.07 and Dutch skater Annette Gerritsen was third in 38.18.
On the men’s side, Dutchman Sven Kramer overcame a fever to win the 5,000-metre race, narrowly maintaining his two-year unbeaten streak over the distance.
He won in 6:16.29 seconds, with Dutch teammate Bob de Jong second in 6:16.38 at Thialf Stadium. Havard Bokko of Norway, the leader for much of the race, was third in 6:17.10.
The last time the 23-year-old lost a 5,000 race was Nov. 11, 2007.
"I had to dig deep for this," said Kramer, who spent two days in bed before the event. "It’s just not in my nature to lose."
Mathieu Giroux of Pointe-aux-Trembles, Que., was 16th in 6:32.58 while Lucas Makowsky of Regina was 17th in 6:33.05.
Joji Kato of Japan was the only man to skate under 35 seconds in the 500, winning in 34.98. Dutch skater Jan Smeekens was second, followed by Lee Kang-seok of South Korea.
Jamie Gregg of Edmonton was seventh in 35.27.
-With files from The Associated Press
Top of Page
|
