Canadian speedskaters Christine Nesbitt, Kristina Groves and Brittany Schussler insist they’re not into the medal counting game. For those who are, Canada did just fine this weekend at the world single distance championships at the Richmond Olympic Oval.
Nesbitt, Groves and Schussler — from London, Ont., Ottawa and Winnipeg, respectively — won the women’s team pursuit gold Sunday to leave Canada with eight medals and tied with the Netherlands atop the standings. Canada’s final tally was two gold, two silver and four bronze. The Dutch had four gold, two silver and two bronze.
“I don’t think of medal count,” said Nesbitt, who also earned a gold in the 1,000 metres and a bronze in the 1,500 after Groves, who’d crossed the line first in the 1,500, was disqualified for a lane violation. “Maybe afterwards I’ll be like oh that’s really cool, we did really well.”
“I think other people besides skaters look at the medal count. I don’t think the skaters do,” said Groves, who had bronzes in the 3,000 and 5,000 metres. Canada’s women finished their six-lap, 2,400-metre race Sunday with a time of two minutes 58.25 seconds. The Netherlands was second in 3:02.02 and Japan third in 3:04.06.
After eight laps and 3,200 metres, the Dutch men won in 3:41.26. Sweden was second in 3:45.73 and the U.S. third in 3:46.07. It was the first medal of the weekend for Schussler, who was part of this same trio that finished second to the Dutch at the 2008 worlds in Nagano.
“It feels awesome,” said Schussler, who earned her first career gold at worlds. “It’s exciting.” Especially exciting because of the margin of victory. It wasn’t even close. “That wasn’t the first thing I noticed,” continued Schussler. “We’ve known all along that we can do this race and we just haven’t been able to put it on the ice. As soon as we crossed the line we knew that that was the race we’ve been waiting for three years. To know about the huge margin of victory, that just makes it better.”
Canada won nine medals in each of the last two worlds — three, gold, three silver and three bronze last year in Nagano and one gold, three silver and five bronze two years ago in Salt Lake City. But this team was without 500-metre ace Jeremy Wotherspoon of Red Deer, Alta., and Winnipeg’s Cindy Klassen, who won five medals at the 2006 Olympics. Both are recovering from injuries.
Understandably, skaters steer away from predictions about how the events might lead to a similar haul 11 months from now at the 2010 Olympics. But results like these in 2010 will do wonders in Canada’s bid to own the podium. “We’re not thinking about that right now,” Groves said of the Olympics. “We’re just going to enjoy this and look forward to next year and train hard.”
“It gives us confidence, but we can’t predict anything yet,” said Nesbitt.“It’s a nice way to finish the competition for sure,” continued Nesbitt. “For us to be able to put that race together we now have the confidence. We know we can do that race. We’ve known we can do that race and we finally did it today.”
Brian Rahill, the high performance and Olympic program director for Speed Skating Canada, is counting the medals. And he liked the final sum. “I’m certainly more than satisfied,” said Rahill. “I think ecstatic might be a bit strong. We reached our performance objectives in terms of medal count. I think know the motivation level of our coaches and athletes there’s still work to do and that’s the Olympic year is all about.
“When I talked to you this week I said eight to nine, eight to 10 (medals) was the target,” continued Rahill. “We’re right on target for what the Canadian sport system expects from us. “We realize that some distances are very tight. I think we all realize we should walk away from the men’s team pursuit with a medal and today we didn’t deliver on that one.”
Canada, with Fort St. John, B.C., brothers Denny and Jay Morrison and Lucas Makowsky of Regina,finished sixth in the men’s team pursuit Sunday. But Denny Morrison added the other two medals, taking silver in the 1,000 and third in the 1,500. Winnipeg’s Clara Hughes took silver in Saturday’s 5,000.
Germany’s Jenny Wolf won the women’s 500 Sunday with a combined time of 1:15.750. The event combines times from two races. China Beixing Wang was second in 1:15.870 and Korea’s Sang-Hwa Lee third in 1:16.390. Korea’s Kang-Seok Lee won the men’s 500 in 1:09.730. Teammate Kyou-Hyuk Lee was second in 1:09.920 and China’s Fengtong Yu third in 1:09.970.