World Speed Skating Championships 2013: Day 4 review

Day 4 of the competition was the first day of the road events. The road venue is a 500m circuit just outside the rink; arrangements are wonderful, with bleachers, food stalls etc. all moved outside to make spectators as comfortable as possible.

Pedro Causil of Colombia (Photo by Luis Ramirez/LatinContent/Getty Images)

The events lined up were the 200m time trial and the 10km point to point race. There were to be 12 people selected for the time trial finals in each age category. After the time trials were scheduled the junior and senior point to point races, most of which were direct finals.

The junior girls’ time trials were a real nail biter. While Italy’s Daria won the bronze comfortably, what made the event so crazy were the two Colombian girls vying for the gold and silver. The first to skate, Yuliana, clocked a time of 18.06s. Colombian No.2 Yesenia Escobar finished her 200m in exactly the same time of 18.06s. It was a couple of nervous seconds before Escobar was declared World Champion.

Next was the junior boys’ race. Andres Campo, the junior everyone was talking about, had a disappointing run, finishing in fourth place. Venezuela was impressive in finishing with a time of 16.68, earning him the bronze. Colombia redeemed itself as Camilo Parez blazed through the track to finish first in 16.45s. Germany skated last, winning the silver.

Senior women followed, with Yersey Puello ripping up the track in a perfect combination of power and grace to set her second world record of the championship, and capture her second gold. The second place was won by Erika Zanetti (Italy), who was another favourite. Bronze was won by Moya from Chile.

Senior men’s was a classic duel between Pedro Causil of Colombia and Ioseba Fernandez of Spain, the current record holder and world champion. Although all the skaters in the final were amazing, everyone knew that it would come down to these two skaters.

Pedro skated first and finished with a time of 16.29s. Then it was Ioseba’s turn. While he was sprinting, the tension in the air was obvious. He finished the race with a time of 16.34s. A roar went up from the Colombians and a second later the entire crowd began cheering. Pedro fell to the floor and cried in joy and relief. After the disappointing Worlds he had had so far, the gold was a relief to him.

After the prize distribution for the time trials, it was time for the point to point finals. Junior girls’ was won by Johanna Viveros from Colombia. Second place was won by Darian O’Neil of the United States, with Belgium taking bronze.

The junior boys’ race had an erratic pace with breakaways from the main pack every few minutes. Sebastian Juan and Boris Pena, with an amazing display of team spirit, executed their pre-planned strategies to perfection and took home gold and silver. Chen Yenpo from Chinese Taipei won bronze.

During the senior women’s race, there were two groups that formed – one was the leading pack that contained the point takers and ultimate winners, while the main pack was simply trying to close the distance between themselves and the leaders. It was a very impressive race, all in all, being won by the Italian Francesca Lollabrigida. It was her second win of the championship and she was fantastic. China’s Guo Dan finished in second place and Yang Hochen from Chinese Taipei won the bronze.

The last race of the day of course turned into another Bart Swings show. He was incredible! He stayed in front of the pack almost the entire time, and took points most laps. Even when two skaters broke away from the pack, he stayed calm and quickly wore their lead down. At the end of the race, he didn’t even bother sprinting because he knew he had already won, and very comfortably. All he did was stand up and punch the air. His joy was felt tenfold by the Belgium crowd who now worship him. Germany came second and Italy took the bronze.

It was a wonderful day full of great races. It was a fitting start to the road events and hopefully, tomorrow’s events will be as good.