The dream of successfully defending the title has burst: Vanessa Herzog had to be content with fourth place at the single-track speed skating world championships in Salt Lake City over the 500-meter distance, 16 hundredths of a second off the podium on Friday. The favored Japanese Nao Kodaira succeeded in revenge for the 2019 World Cup in Inzell, where she ended up behind the native Tyrolean.
The Kodaira, who had been successful at the World Cup three years ago, set the best time in the couple before Herzog and the Olympic champion’s 36.69 seconds were no longer undercut. Behind them landed two Russian women, Angelina Golikowa (36.74) and Olga Fatkulina (36.79), who were the last to go on ice together. Fatkulina secured third place after a weak start with a strong finish.
Herzog should have broken the Austrian record she had held herself (36.83) for a podium finish, but failed in this attempt and came to the finish after 36.95 seconds. Only the top four remained below the 37-second mark. That was weak consolation. “Fourth place is exactly the result that you don’t want to have at a major event at all. But you have to recognize that the three medalists were simply better,” said Herzog.
After the ranks three (twice) and two (once) last in the World Cup, she had justifiably started with the medal target. “Overall, it was a tense race of mine. The start was good, my fastest in my career, but the lap was simply not good technically,” Herzog analyzed. Maybe she just wanted too much. “It was a great time and I am the fourth fastest woman of the year, but of course the disappointment prevails at the moment,” said the Carinthian from Wahl.
On Saturday (10:22 p.m. CET), the 24-year-old native of Tyrol has another chance with her fifth World Cup participation over 1,000 meters. Austria’s athlete of the year 2019, who is married to her manager and trainer Thomas Herzog, has to defend second place from the previous year. “So far I haven’t had a really good run over this distance this season and I don’t want to make a forecast at all. The form is definitely good and maybe the knot will come loose tomorrow,” Herzog hoped.
In the 500-meter men’s race, the Russian Pavel Kulishnikov won the world title for the third time at this distance. Silver went to his compatriot Ruslan Muraschow before the Japanese Tatsuya Shinhama. There was no new world record, but over 10,000 meters. The Canadian Graeme Fish set a new record in 12: 33.86 minutes and beat the previous record by his compatriot Ted-Jan Bloemen by 2.44 seconds. Bloemen took second place ahead of German Patrick Beckert.
In the team pursuit, the Japanese women’s trio successfully defended the world title in 2: 50.76 minutes and referred the Netherlands and Canada to further medal ranks. The title fights take place for the third time after 2001 and 2007 in Salt Lake City.
Source: APA
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