JOHANNES EISELE
Christine Nesbitt's gold rush to open the World Cup season continues, and the Olympic champion didn't see it coming.
The long-track speedskater from London, Ont., won the women's 1,500 metres Friday in Berlin, her third victory of the young campaign so far. Nesbitt's time of one minute 57.03 seconds was nearly a full second ahead of runner up Norway's Ida Njatun's 1:57.99.
"It's definitely a surprise," she said during a conference call. "I wouldn't say it's a dream start just because I didn't expect to have a good start to the season and I remember even talking to (coach) Xiuli (Wang) about it and she said not to put those expectations because it's a new coach and a new program, but also I had some setbacks in the summer. It's really nice that I'm racing so well."
Ireen Wust of the Netherlands was third in 1:58.93 to edge a resurgent Cindy Klassen at 1:59.14. Fellow Winnipegger Brittany Schussler was fifth in 1:59.15, Kristina Groves of Ottawa 11th at 2:00.54 and Shannon Rempel of Winnipeg 13th in 2:00.79.
Nesbitt opened the World Cup season with victories in the 1,000, the distance she claimed gold in during the Vancouver Olympics, and the 1,500 last week in the Netherlands.
"I don't feel like I've had perfect races necessarily, I just feel like I'm fit and because I have no expectations, that can make it a little bit easier to race," she said. "My best distances are more on the sprint side so you go as hard as you can and hold on until it's over. Not being afraid and just seeing what I can do, that's what I've been doing every race and it's been working out for me."
The results have been particularly impressive considering that she missed a portion of summer training nursing a broken right elbow suffered when a car struck her bike.
She still can't handle the team's full upper-body weightlifting program and copes with lingering pain from the injury.
"My arm still bothers me a bit," she said. "Especially last weekend was my first full weekend of racing and by the end my arm was really hurting me just to like sleep at night and stuff. It was kind of weird.
"I don't know how and if that might affect me for the rest of the season with my overall fitness and keeping my upper body strength."
Nesbitt wants to win medals at both the world sprint championships and world all-round championships later this season and is making progress on rounding out her racing.
Nesbitt was ninth and Rempel 10th in the women's 500, about a second behind winner Jenny Wolf of Germany in 38.08. Lee Sang-Hwa of South Korea was second in 38.24, followed by Dutchwoman Margot Boer's 38.66.
Vincent Labrie of Quebec City was the top Canadian in the men's 500, finishing 14th in 35.50. Gilmore Junio of Calgary was 18th in 35.83.
Both were well off the pace set by winner Joji Kato of Japan in 35.03. Dutchman Jan Smeekens was second in 35.04 and Lee Kang-Seok of South Korea was third in 35.10.
Lee Seung-Hoon of South Korea won the men's 5,000 in 6:18.40, followed by American Jonathan Kuck's 6:18.85 and Norway's Havard Bokko's 6:19.50.
Lucas Makowsky of Regina won the B group race in 6:25.55 and returns to the A group.