Russia sweeps men's 500m podium at ISU Speed Skating World Cup in Calgary

Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-08 10:00:53|Editor: huaxia

TORONTO, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Ruslan Murashov of Russia claimed the men's 500m title at the ISU Speed Skating World Cup in Calgary, Canada on Friday as his countrymen Pavel Kulizhnikov and Viktor Mushtakov completed the podium sweep for Russia.

Murashov shook off a slow start to cross the finish line in 34.043 seconds, edging world record holder Kulizhnikov by 0.009 seconds thanks to a fastest full lap result. Mushtakov finished third in 34.068, but enough to keep his lead in the overall standings with 285 points.

PyeongChang bronze medalist Gao Tingyu of China skated to a personal best result of 34.303 and ranked eighth.

"The relationship in our team is very good," said Kulizhnikov, who returned from an injury last December. "We're colleagues and we make each other stronger."

Denis Yuskov added to Russia's dominance with his first World Cup victory this season, winning the men's 1,500m gold with a result of 1:43.234. Ning Zhongyan of China, winner of the distance in the Kazakhstan leg, had a PB of 1:43.262 to bag a silver. The third place went to Joey Mantia of the United States,

The Dutch trio of Thomas Krol, Kjeld Nuis and Patrick Roest skipped the distance with the World Single Distance Championships in a week.

In the women's competitions, PyeongChang silver medalist Kodaira Nao of Japan snatched 1,000m gold in 1:12.652, putting an end to Brittany Bowe's dominance in the previous three legs. The American world record holder could only manage a sixth place finish in Calgary, 0.415 seconds behind the leader, but still 34 points ahead of the Japanese on the overall standings.

Olga Fatkulina and Yekaterina Shikhova of Russia contributed a silver and a bronze to Russia's fruitful day with times of 1:12.806 and 1:12.842 respectively.

32-year-old Martina Sablikova proved she was still in good shape with her second World Cup win in the women's 3,000m this season. The Czech world record holder claimed the title in 3:54.936 after a late surge in the final two laps.

Antoinette de Jong of the Netherlands sprinted to second in final lap in 3:56.182, about 0.4 seconds ahead of Russia's Natalia Voronina, who was still the leader after 2,200m. Home favorite Ivanie Blondin, who beat Sablikova twice this season, finished seventh with a result of 3:59.184.

The World Cup will stage women's 500m and 1,500m as well as men's 1,000m and 5,000m events on Saturday before the World Single Distance Championships begins on February 13. 

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