Nesbitt turns it on
Speedskater comes from behind to win
Canada’s
Christine Nesbitt won the women’s 1,000-metre race Sunday at a World Cup speedskating event.
The London, Ont., native brought her medal count on the season to six (four gold, one silver, one bronze) with a time of one minute 15.132 seconds, 0.13 seconds ahead of American Heather Richardson. Lotte van Beek, of the Netherlands, was third in 1:15.87.
“I was in the last pair with Heather Richardson, who won the previous two 1,000s of the season,” said Nesbitt. “So, I knew that she was going to be fast and she’s been skating well. But I felt this week things have been coming together more and more in my own skating. So, I was kind of excited. (Richardson) was pretty far ahead with one lap to go, but I dug really deep in the last back straightaway and I didn’t let her out of my sight.”
Meanwhile, Japan’s Keiichiro Nagashima won the men’s 500-metre race to claim his first World Cup victory of the season.
Nagashima, the Vancouver Olympics silver medallist, beat Calgary’s Gilmore Junio by just two hundredths of a second, clocking 35.14 seconds for his 11th career victory.
“I’m pretty excited about my first World Cup medal and it sets out the season really nicely,” Junio said.
Jan Smeekens, of the Netherlands, was third in 35.18.
South Korea’s Lee Sang-hwa clocked 37.60 to win the women’s 500 for her fourth straight World Cup title. Germany’s Jenny Wolf was second in 37.91, while Japan’s Nao Kodaira was third in 38.09.
Hein Otterspeer, of the Netherlands, won the men’s 1,000 in 1:09.20, 0.44 seconds ahead of Denny Morrison, of Fort St. John, B.C. Kjeld Nuis, also of the Netherlands, was third in 1:09.72.