Speed Skating 2016 - 2017 Discussion Thread

[heywoodu 15,353]

  On 11/11/2016 at 3:11 PM, rybak said:

 

 

So sad, we lost good skater  Hopefully he will feel good among Czechs and will get more chances for competing in World Cups.

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Oh well, Szymanski, Niedzwiedski and Brodka are all (much) better to be honest. Druszkiewicz was/is not much more than just another name in the start lists: in the past 10 years he had only 32 individual World Cup starts and 31 of those were in the B-division. Poland actually loses...basically nothing in terms of results now that he's gone  

[rybak 3,239]

  On 11/11/2016 at 3:17 PM, heywoodu said:

Oh well, Szymanski, Niedzwiedski and Brodka are all (much) better to be honest. Druszkiewicz was/is not much more than just another name in the start lists: in the past 10 years he had only 32 individual World Cup starts and 31 of those were in the B-division. Poland actually loses...basically nothing in terms of results now that he's gone  

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Yes, those three skaters are better than him, but he always was first reserved skater to team pursuit races, he said after Sochi that consider change the nationality because in both Vancouver and Sochi Games he not compete in team races, despite this that coach assured him that will compete in at least few races. And he competed in just few World Cups because our federation doesn't want give him chance.

[heywoodu 15,353]

  On 11/11/2016 at 3:24 PM, rybak said:

Yes, those three skaters are better than him, but he always was first reserved skater to team pursuit races, he said after Sochi that consider change the nationality because in both Vancouver and Sochi Games he not compete in team races, despite this that coach assured him that will compete in at least few races. And he competed in just few World Cups because our federation doesn't want give him chance.

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But whenever he got his chance, he didn't take it. Always finishing like 10th-20th or even higher in B-divisions, then you're just really, really far away from being close to a top level..

 

Don't get me wrong, it's always good to have a decent back-up for the team pursuit, but if the three who are much better don't get injured/sick/whatever, he isn't needed  

 

Of course it's weird to assure someone he'll race in the Olympics and then not give him a chance, but that doesn't change that in 10 years he just never really showed that he would be good enough to be more than one of the many B-division skaters  

[hckošice 15,122]

  On 11/11/2016 at 3:28 PM, heywoodu said:

But whenever he got his chance, he didn't take it. Always finishing like 10th-20th or even higher in B-divisions, then you're just really, really far away from being close to a top level..

 

Don't get me wrong, it's always good to have a decent back-up for the team pursuit, but if the three who are much better don't get injured/sick/whatever, he isn't needed  

 

Of course it's weird to assure someone he'll race in the Olympics and then not give him a chance, but that doesn't change that in 10 years he just never really showed that he would be good enough to be more than one of the many B-division skaters  

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well, if he had chosen SVK, he would be already our most succesful and best speed skater of the whole history but yeah,,who would have chosen SVK ?

[heywoodu 15,353]

  On 11/11/2016 at 3:38 PM, hckosice said:

 

well, if he had chosen SVK, he would be already our most succesful and best speed skater of the whole history but yeah,,who would have chosen SVK ?

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Anyone who wants to be the best speed skater ever of a certain country without having to improve a whole lot 

 

For Slovakia he would make a real difference, for Poland he wouldn't  

[hckošice 15,122]

  On 11/11/2016 at 3:41 PM, heywoodu said:

For Slovakia he would make a real difference, for Poland he wouldn't  

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yeah sure, especially considering he will be the only one

[dcro 10,210]

Roman Krech wins 500m from heat 1. Looks like this is too early for the favorites...

[heywoodu 15,353]

  On 11/12/2016 at 8:40 AM, dcro said:

Roman Krech wins 500m from heat 1. Looks like this is too early for the favorites...

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In his entire career his best finishes were 6th, 6th, 8th and 10th  

 

And to be fair, his time is actually really good on this crappy ice 

[VolleyRuller96 264]

Wow, pretty nice results for  in men's team 1500 so far 2nd place of 5 teams so far in their historic debut (?) in group A

[heywoodu 15,353]

  On 11/12/2016 at 11:19 AM, VolleyRuller96 said:

Wow, pretty nice results for  in men's team 1500 so far 2nd place of 5 teams so far in their historic debut (?) in group A

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I'm surprised that apparently it is their A-division debut 

 

They've got a seriuosly good team, especially if Kay can improve a bit more. Dobbin is already there for a while but seems to be on his way back a little, but especially Michael is seriously world class. It wouldn't even be a huge surprise if he medals in Pyeongchang