Speed Skating ISU Allround & Sprint World Championships 2020

[Totallympics 78]

Speed Skating ISU Allround & Sprint World Championships 2020

 

Hamar (NOR) - 28 February 2020 - 1 March 2020

 

 

Official Website

[Dennis 762]

About 15 minutes to go.

 

Just for fun, I'll make a prediction for the women's sprint tournament, because in my eyes that's the most difficult one to predict this weekend:

 

• Bowe performed poorly in Salt Lake City and Calgary, but perhaps this sea-level track helps her getting back to her high level.
• Ter Mors is a big question mark for me as she hasn't skated many competitions in the past two years after she had an injury during the 2018-2019 season and this season she was suffering from illness a lot.
• Leerdam won the 1.000m world title two weeks ago, but she hasn't competed in a 500m since her win at the national championships. Furthermore, I'm not sure if that win was a fluke as the main favorites showed disappointing times there and she outdid herself.
• Takagi wasn't impressive on the 1.000 in Salt Lake City, the distance on which I think on average she's the best in the world. That's why I put her a little lower than what she's capable of when she's in shape.
• Herzog is good on the 500m, but hasn't shown much on the 1.000m throughout the season.
• The Koreans went with a weird choice when you have Kim Min-Sun and Kim Hyun-Yung as well who are better than Kim Min-Ji in both distances.

 

Rank	Skater	Points
01.	Nao Kodaira	149,905
02.	Daria Kachanova	150,000
03.	Brittany Bowe	150,075
04.	Olga Fatkulina	150,085
05.	Angelina Golikova	150,400
06.	Miho Takagi	150,605
07.	Jutta Leerdam	150,800
08.	Vanessa Herzog	151,325
09.	Letitia de Jong	151,450
10.	Kimi Goetz	152,255
11.	Jorien ter Mors	152,305
12.	Kaylin Irvine	152,685
13.	Arisa Go	152,740
14.	Heather McLean	153,785
15.	Kaja Ziomek	153,935
16.	Zhao Xin	154,685
17.	Huang Yu-Ting	155,695
18.	Li Qishi	155,790
19.	Hanna Nifantava	155,835
20.	Tian Ruining	156,160
21.	Abigail McCluskey	157,020
22.	Andżelika Wójcik	157,065
23.	Ida Njåtun	157,145
24.	Katja Franzen	157,540
25.	Hege Bøkko	157,780
26.	Stien Vanhoutte	159,065
27.	Kim Min-Ji	162,350

[Dennis 762]

After the first 500m:

 

I really overestimated the speed of the track. I'd expected a winning time around 37,25 like the World Cup last year. On average, skaters were about 0,30 slower than I predicted.

 

After the first 500m, I'd say these are the winners and losers among the favorites and outsiders.

 

• Winners:  Miho Takagi
• Losers:  Daria Kachanova,  Brittany Bowe,  Angelina Golikova (almost fell),  Jutta Leerdam and  Letitia de Jong

 

Overall  Hanna Nifantava did the poorest compared to what I predicted, whereas  Li Qishi did the best as she's more of a 1.000m specialist.

 

This will be an exciting battle between  Kodaira,  Takagi and  Fatkulina now.

 

 

[Dennis 762]

Close first 500m in the men's sprint tournament.  Dubreuil wins the race and won bronze on the 1.000m at the World Distance Championships two weeks ago, so he might challenge the Russians here. Pretty much all 1.000m specialists apart from  Kulizhnikov and  Dubreuil showed disappointing times.

[heywoodu 16,060]

Right, they can hand out the gold to Miho Takagi  

[Dennis 762]

After the first 1.000m:

 

• Top contenders/outsiders:
  • On average, most times on this first 1.000m were around what I expected, but there were some great outliers on both sides:
  • Out of the favorites and outsiders,  Arisa Go,  Jorien ter Mors and  Miho Takagi had the best 1.000m.
  •  Daria Kachanova,  Vanessa Herzog and Nao Kodaira were the biggest disappointments on this first 1.000m.
• Outside of the top contenders:
  •  Kim Min-Ji did a lot better than I expected closing the gap to the rest, but I still think she'll finish last,  Hege Bøkko and  Zhao Xin/Li Qishi did well to.
  •  Hanna Nifantava didn't do well and neither did the two Polish ladies.

 

Thoughts after Day 1:

 

• Top contenders/outsiders:
  •  Miho Takagi will win the world title by a landslide if nothing unusual happens tomorrow. Not what I expected after her results in Salt Lake City.
  •  Olga Fatkulina and  Nao Kodaira will fight for silver and bronze.
  • The skaters who did the best overall compared to the rest of their season:  Miho Takagi,  Arisa Go and  Jorien ter Mors.
  • Biggest disappointments for me are  Daria Kachanova,  Brittany Bowe and  Angelina Golikova.
• Outside of the favorites/outsiders:
  • Top 3 performers for me today were 1.  Li Qishi, 2.  Kim Min-Ji and 3.  Hege Bøkko.
  • Disappointments were 1.  Andżelika Wójcik, 2.  Hanna Nifantava and 3. Katja Franzen, all having shown much better results during this season.

[Dennis 762]

After the second 500m:

 

• Top contenders/outsiders:
  • Best results for: 1.  Miho Takagi, 2.  Nao Kodaira and 3.  Kaylin Irvine
  • Worst results for: 1.  Vanessa Herzog, 2.  Daria Kachanova, 3.  Brittany Bowe
• Other skaters:
  • Best results for: 1.  Hege Bøkko, 2.  Li Qishi, 3.  Zhao Xin
  • Worst results: 1.  Andżelika Wójcik, 2.  Hanna Nifantava, 3.  Stien Vanhoutte

 

Overall:

 

• Expected podium is now  Miho Takagi, 2.  Nao Kodaira and 3.  Olga Fatkulina. Miho will be the only one who will finish below 150 points (even below 149 points).
• Biggest disappointments this tournament: 1.  Daria Kachanova, 2.  Brittany Bowe, 3.  Vanessa Herzog. Kachanova has retired after this 500m.
•  Andżelika Wójcik now most likely to finish last, even though I expected her to finish more than 5 points in front of  Kim Min-Ji. 

[heywoodu 16,060]

Everything that's Russian is withdrawing suddenly  

[heywoodu 16,060]

What a tournament for Shinhama

[heywoodu 16,060]

Karolina Bosiek with an excellent start to her tournament. Interestingly, she is born on 20-02-2000, meaning she turned 20 on 20-02-2020