Bronze Trofimova and Voronina's failure
The World Speed Skating Championship at separate distances started with the drawing of two sets of medals among the stayers.
One of the favorites in the 3000m race was Russian Natalia Voronina.
In the previous two years, she won the World Cup bronze at this distance, and at the end of January 2021, she set a track record in Heerenveen, showing the best result of the season in the world (3: 56.853).
Voronina ran in the last pair with the Dutchwoman Irene Schouten, knowing that the first two places with a difference of one tenth of a second are occupied by another owner of the skating rink Antoinette de Jong and the titled Czech Martina Sablikova.
Moreover, they did not run out of 3:58, leaving the Russian woman a chance to win.
However, Voronina adhered to the leaders' time only in the first two circles, and then she began to lag behind and let Schouten go ahead.
As a result, the Russian speed skater could not run out even after four minutes and took seventh place, and the Dutch woman got bronze.
But already in the next 5000 meters race among men, the first medal was in the piggy bank of the Russian national team.
Moreover, it could get to someone from whom such success was not expected.
For Danila Semerikov this season was not very successful - after the missed European Championship he did not show anything special at the World Cup stages, and in the World Championship he ran the top five in only 6: 16.029.
But this turned out to be enough to become a leader before entering the ice of the main favorites.
The result of Semerikov immediately exceeded the Dutchman Patrick Rust by six seconds.
At the same time, the Italian Davide Giotto, who fled with him, turned out to be slower than the Russian.
And in the next race there was a real sensation - the Dutch-born Swede Niels van der Poole set a personal record by running for 6: 08.395 and deprived the main favorite of the competition from gold.
His rival in the race, Halgeir Engebroten, also lost to Semerikov, and he remained in the top three before the last pair of participants appeared on the ice.
What a day 👀!
Nils van der Poel 🇸🇪 clinches Sweden's first-ever individual medal at the World Single Distance Championships as he takes 🥇 in the Men's 5000m
It's silver 🥈 for Patrick Roest 🇳🇱 and bronze 🥉 for Sergey Trofimov (RSU) # SpeedSkating # WorldSpeedpic.twitter .com / XVgmaKnsBJ
- ISU Speed Skating (@ISU_Speed) February 11, 2021
It included Sergei Trofimov and the legendary Sven Kramer.
The Dutchman was the clear favorite of the race, but right from the start he began to slip and only held back the Russian skater.
Tom had no choice but to step forward and continue to work at his own pace.
At some point, Trofimov beat the 30-time world champion by as much as half a lap.
This guaranteed the Russian team a bronze medal, which eventually went to Trofimov.
Semerikov took fourth place, and World Cup debutant Daniil Aldoshkin was on the sixth line, having updated his personal record at 5000 meters.
Double Bronze Team Race
The second day of the tournament began with team races.
For Russian girls, the main rivals were the Norwegians - it was they who, during the World Cup, twice pushed Natalya Voronina, Elizaveta Golubeva and Evgenia Lalenkova to fourth position.
These two teams ended up in the penultimate race and could compete for a place on the podium in a head-to-head dispute.
The Russians immediately took the lead, but in the middle of the distance they allowed the Norwegians to take the lead for a short time.
In the last laps, Voronina volunteered to lead the team and brilliantly coped with this role - the Russians showed the best time.
In the final race, the Dutch broke the Canadian hegemony this season, and the Russian team won bronze medals.
For Voronina, the award of this dignity at the world championships was already the eighth in her career (and the fifth in the team race).
The Russian men's team also had to face the Norwegians in person, but after a similar duel between the Dutch and the Canadians, in which the rink owners took over.
The coaching staff of the national team was slightly surprised by not including Aldoshkin in the team, despite his result in the individual race and participation in the bronze medal at the last stage of the World Cup.
Instead, Ruslan Zakharov entered the team to Trofimov and Semerikov - the same trio took bronze at the 2020 World Cup.
The Norwegians had a very strong start, but they themselves paid for their haste.
Not even half the distance had passed, as from the first intermediate place, they began to roll back to fourth.
The Russians, on the other hand, maintained a steady pace, which, although it did not allow them to fight with the Netherlands and Canada, but provided another set of bronze medals.
For the entire time of the drawing of medals in the team race, the Russian national team took third place for the fifth time.
Silver Sprint Kulizhnikov
By the end of the second day, the stayers gave way to sprinters, who competed for medals at a distance of 500 meters.
In the men's competition, the Russians were among the main favorites - Artyom Arefiev and Pavel Kulizhnikov were the only ones who ran out of 34.5 seconds this season, and Ruslan Murashov reached bronze at one of the World Cup stages.
The draw sent them all to the very end of the starting protocol.
By the time Kulizhnikov was supposed to start in tandem with the Dutch veteran Ronald Mülder, the Canadian Laurent Dubreuil was the leader.
He ran the distance in a fantastic 34.398 seconds for this season.
Kulizhnikov, as usual, did not start his race too quickly, but accelerated at the finish line and stopped the stopwatch at 34.540 seconds.
He finished second, from which, in theory, only two other Russians could move him and Dubreuil.
🏆 Laurent Dubreuil 🇨🇦 is the new World Champion in the 500m!
He's the second Canadian skater to earn that title, after Jeremy Wotherspoon in 2008!
🔥
It's silver for Pavel Kulizhnikov (RSU) and Dai Dai Ntab 🇳🇱 takes his first individual World medal🥉 # SpeedSkating # WorldSpeedpic.twitter.com / DB6t8UM30R
- ISU Speed Skating (@ISU_Speed) February 12, 2021
However, neither Arefiev, nor Murashov did the race.
Both accelerated well, but at the exit from the last corner they made a mistake, losing valuable fractions of a second.
Arefiev ended up only seventh, and the 2019 world champion was content with 11th place.
The bronze went to a Dutchman with Senegalese roots Dai Dai Ntabu.
For Kulizhnikov, silver became the fourth World Cup award in the 500-meter (the previous three were gold) - only three other athletes achieved such a result in the history of the world championships at separate distances.
Golikova's incredible victory
Angelina Golikova and Femke Kok were to decide the fate of the gold medal in the women's 500 meters races.
The whole season passed under the sign of their duel - first, the Russian woman was twice ahead of the Dutch woman in the European Championship in sprint all-around, and then she won four starts at the World Cup.
Golikova, on the other hand, was the second in these races every time.
The first of them to enter the Heerenveen ice was a Russian athlete.
She immediately showed an impressive start - she managed to accelerate in 10.26 seconds for the first time in a season.
This spurt allowed at the same time, when changing the track, to run right behind the Canadian Heather McLean, which had a positive effect on the dynamics of the Russian woman.
Clearly leaving the turn, Golikova rushed to the finish line and stopped the stopwatch at 37.141 seconds.
Kok has only managed to run faster this season.
👀 Angelina Golikova (RSU) speeds into 37.141 and clinches the Ladies' 500m World title 🏆
Femke Kok 🇳🇱 takes her first-ever individual World medal with 🥈 and Olga Fatkulina (RSU) grabs bronze 🥉 # SpeedSkating # WorldSpeedpic.twitter.com / xph8kYTAFJ
- ISU Speed Skating (@ISU_Speed) February 12, 2021
Golikova moved Daria Kachanova from the first line, who at that time had headed the protocol for a long time.
After them, another Russian woman, Olga Fatkulina, ran her own race, and she already became Golikova's closest pursuer.
The bronze winner of the 2020 World Cup showed a time of 37.455 seconds, with which she could at least repeat that success.
The last couple of participants were Kok and her compatriot Jutta Lerdam, who did not claim a medal due to a recent injury.
Kok could not start as briskly as the leader of the competition, and lost another tenth of a second in the main part of the distance.
So Golikova took a step forward compared to last year and won the first gold of the world championship for Russian girls in the 500-meter since Svetlana Zhurova, who won 25 years ago.
Fatkulina retained her third place and won the sixth medal for the Russian national team in six starts of the 2021 World Cup.