Dennis

I was also surprised that Korea finished one lap before the rest, but then again, it was probably the most chaotic race I've ever seen. Some of the skaters were also confused as Kristen Santos was sprinting to the finish with the Korean skater, and then it turned out that the US had to skate one more lap. Well now it turns out that Korea also had to skate one more, so both teams sprinted to early.

Two interesting weeks in Montréal! Next week the Four Continents Championships will be held in Laval. The World Cup will continue on December 8th with Stage 3 in Beijing and then Stage 4 starting December 15th in Seoul.

ISU World Cup 2023/24 - Montréal (Stage 2/6) Women's 3.000m Relay: 01. South Korea 02. the Netherlands 03. United States of America Men's 5.000m Relay: 01. China 02. Canada 03. Kazakhstan ()

After about 10 minutes, a decision was taken: a penalty for for hitting the skater from team from behind, causing both their own skater and the Korean skater to fall. indeed won gold, silver and bronze.

The women's relay final was pure chaos: and fell (first , not much later both and ). and missed an exchange because the riders from Canada and the Netherlands were hindering each other. I don't think anyone knows who won. The on screen timing now says won, but I'm totally not sure.

I was wrong. If you sum the total World Cup points won (excl. relays) in week 1 versus week 2, then Italy is indeed under-performing compared to Stage 1. Most improved are: +336 points (796 vs. 460) +115 points (1143 vs. 1028) +115 points (716 vs. 601) Biggest decreases: -151 points (442 vs. 593) -142 points (211 vs. 353) -121 points (243 vs. 364)

ISU World Cup 2023/24 - Montréal (Stage 2/6) Overall World Cup Standings after Stage 2 - Women: Kim Gilli - 455 points Kristen Santos-Griswold - 400 points Hanne Desmet - 375 points Xandra Velzeboer - 305 points Seo Whimin - 259 points Courtney Sarault - 259 points Danae Blais - 245 points Selma Poutsma - 227 points Lee Soyoun - 212 points Rikki Doak - 204 points Overall World Cup Standings after Stage 2 - Men: Kim Gun Woo - 430 points Steven Dubois - 330 points Park Ji Won - 326 points William Dandjinou - 260 points Hwang Daeheon - 260 points Pietro Sighel - 244 points Luca Spechenhauser - 243 points Liu Shaoang - 213 points Jens van 't Wout - 207 points Pascal Dion - 177 points

Maybe that's true, but I argue that and are just doing better than last week, which has an impact on the chances of all other smaller teams.

ISU World Cup 2023/24 - Montréal (Stage 2/6) Women's 1.000m: 01. Seo Whimin 02. Danae Blais 03. Park Jiyun Men's 1.000m: 01. Jens van 't Wout 02. Hwang Daeheon 03. Lee Jeongmin

ISU World Cup 2023/24 - Montréal (Stage 2/6) Women's 1.500m [2/2]: 01. Hanne Desmet 02. Kim Gilli 03. Kristen Santos-Griswold Men's 1.500m [2/2]: 01. Kim Gun Woo 02. Park Ji Won 03. Steven Dubois

The women's 1.500m final today was the strongest final so far this season won by Hanne Desmet . Incredible field here with Desmet, Santos, Kim Gilli, Xandra Velzeboer, Shim Suk Hee, Sarault and Gong Li all in the same race. That's what we want to see!

Not unexpected at all indeed. Anything but winning the quota would be a surprise.

ISU World Cup 2023/24 - Montréal (Stage 2/6) Mixed 3.000m Relay: 01. China 02. the Netherlands 03. Italy

ISU World Cup 2023/24 - Montréal (Stage 2/6) Women's 500m: 01. Rikki Doak 02. Selma Poutsma 03. Martina Valcepina Men's 500m: 01. Jordan Pierre-Gilles 02. Liu Shaolin 03. Lin Xiaojun

ISU World Cup 2023/24 - Montréal (Stage 2/6) Women's 1.500m [1/2]: 01. Kim Gilli 02. Kristen Santos-Griswold 03. Danae Blais Men's 1.500m [1/2]: 01. William Dandjinou 02. Hwang Daeheon 03. Kim Gun Woo

Based on recent results, it's no surprise that Japan and Bahrain made the final and that Japan won. Congrats to them. They're the best team in Asia now, so their qualification is completely deserved. Qatar's team barely won against Iraq twice last July (24-23 and 24-21) and lost to Argentina (22-26) at the World Championships in January, which is a team they would've beaten easily during their peak years. They're not as good anymore as they used to be a couple years ago.

Less surprises on the women's 1.500m. Groenewoud (5th at World Championships), Kiel (surprising 2nd place, making her World Cup debut at age 27), Rijpma-de Jong (reigning World Champion), Beune (6th last year in the final World Cup standings) and Wijfje (back after a poor season) qualified for the first World Cups. Only one smaller surprise: Irene Schouten finished in 8th place, one spot behind 16-year old 6x junior World Champion (1.000m, 1.500m, mass start, team pursuit, team sprint & allround) Angel Daleman. Last year Schouten also finished in 8th spot at the qualification tournament, but that was after she took it a little easier during the summer, following her 3 Olympic gold medals in Beijing.

The Dutch qualifications for the first four World Cups started about 1.5 hours ago and already some big surprises. The 5.000m for men just finished. Patrick Roest won the 5k, which is no surprise as he's the reigning World Champion. However, the other skaters who qualified for the first four World Cups are Chris Huizinga, Jesse Speijers (21 years old), Marwin Talsma, and Gert Wierda (21 years old). This means the following guys are out: Jorrit Bergsma (4x silver medalist at World Championships over 5.000m), finished in 10th place Beau Snellink (last year's World Cup winner over 5.000m and 10.000m), finished in 9th place Marcel Bosker (5th at the 2023 World Championships on the 5.000m), finished in 6th place

I watched the live stream a couple of times during those 108 hours. It’s bizarre what these athletes are capable of.

Japan is the 10th country to win a medal here! Bold race from them, racing at or near the front for most of the race, despite being the weakest team on paper.

ISU World Cup 2023/24 - Montréal (Stage 1/6) Women's 3.000m Relay: 01. Canada 02. United States of America 03. the Netherlands Men's 5.000m Relay: 01. Canada 02. South Korea 03. Japan

All 8 individual distances have been finished during this first World Cup weekend and we have 8 different winners: Kristen Santos-Griswold, Hanne Desmet, Xandra Velzeboer, Kim Gilli, Park Ji Won, Hwang Daeheon, Liu Shaoang, and Kim Gun Woo. On top of that, 13 more skaters that won at least one medal. So the 24 medals on the individual distances were split between 21 different skaters from 9 different countries. Very exciting and unpredictable first World Cup weekend!

ISU World Cup 2023/24 - Montréal (Stage 1/6) Women's 1.000m [2/2]: 01. Kim Gilli 02. Hanne Desmet 03. Kristen Santos-Griswold Men's 1.000m [2/2]: 01. Kim Gun Woo 02. Luca Spechenhauser 03. William Dandjinou

Nice finish by Kim Gilli in the final of the 2nd women's 1.000m when she sneakily passed Desmet and Santos-Griswold who were fighting for first the entire race up to the last corner.

ISU World Cup 2023/24 - Montréal (Stage 1/6) Women's 500m: 01. Xandra Velzeboer 02. Selma Poutsma 03. Martina Valcepina Men's 500m: 01. Liu Shaoang 02. Felix Roussel 03. Quentin Fercoq