Sáblíková and Roest set track records

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Martina Sáblíková (CZE) showed her resilience by bouncing back from last week's fourth place to win the 3000m in track record time on the opening day of the ISU World Cup Speed Skating in Tomaszów Mazowiecki on Friday. In the ladies' Team Sprint, Russia took advantage of a line-up change to beat the Netherlands after last week's silver medal.

Patrick Roest (NED) seized his second consecutive 5000m gold in the World Cup and his fourth in total, while the Dutch men gave a master class in the Team Sprint.

Sáblíková had a tough couple of days after her disappointing start to the World Cup season in Minsk last week. "I was sick last week and I flew back to the Czech republic to have my blood tested in the hospital after Minsk," she explained. "I did not skate the whole week. Yesterday was my first day back on the ice."

The World Allround champion even doubted whether she would start in the 3000m in Tomaszów. "I said, ‘OK, I'm here so let's try’, because I want to stay in the top-eight to be able skate the 5000m (at the World Cup in Nur-Sultan in December)."

Despite being so exhausted that she had to do the post-race interviews sitting down, Sáblíková did not for a second regret her decision to start. She finished in 4:06.13, beating her own track record by almost eight seconds and taking her career 50th individual World Cup gold. She hopes to have recovered fully. "I felt really good before Minsk, I skated 4:00 in Inzell. I don't exactly know what it was, something with my stomach, I hope it's all over now."

Achtereekte inches away form first World Cup gold

Olympic 3000m champion Achtereekte started after Sáblíková had set her time and she knew what she had to do to grab her career first World Cup win. Battling with pair-mate Antoinette de Jong (NED), Achtereekte went into the final lap with an 0.15-second advantage over Sáblíková, but she did not manage to pull it off.

With 4:06.28 she came 0.15 seconds short at the finish line. "That's annoying," She said. "It's just little things I can do better. I had a mis-stroke in the final three laps, and racing versus Antoinette [de Jong], I was just a bit too much preoccupied with winning the pair [instead of the event]."

Thanks to her second place, Achtereekte climbs to the top of the long distance World Cup ranking, but she is not too bothered. "I don't go to [the World Cup Events in] Kazakhstan and Nagano. I thought about it today. It's dangerous, when you're skating to well, you may consider switching, but I stick to the original plan [a training camp in Collalbo, Italy]. It's going well and I want to keep it that way."

Isabelle Weidemann (CAN), who won the 3000m in Minsk, skated in the final pair versus compatriot Ivanie Blondin. She finished fourth in 4:06.76 and dropped to second place in the World Cup ranking. Sáblíková climbed to third place, surpassing Natalya Voronina( RUS), who finished in 4:06.61 in Tomaszów to take her second bronze medal of the season.

Line-up changes shake up Team Sprint

In the ladies' Team Sprint last week's gold and silver medalists the Netherlands and Russia both changed their line-up. It worked out well for Russia, but not so much for the Dutch ladies. With Daria Kachanova instead of Irina Kuznetsova, the Russian team reverted to the line-up with which they took silver at last year's World Single Distance Championships in Inzell. In Tomaszów the team was good enough for gold in 1:27.65.

With Kachanova in the team, Angelina Golikova and Olga Fatkulina skated first and second instead of second and third, as they did in Minsk. "Today went better [than last week in Minsk]," Fatkulina said. "I like to do two laps instead of three laps. It's easier and tomorrow I also skate a 500m, so two laps is enough for today."

The Netherlands, who took gold last week, finished 1.69 seconds behind Russia, with Sanneke de Neeling instead of Letitia de Jong as third skater. Michelle de Jong and Jutta Leerdam were the first and second skater, like last week in Minsk. "I think we lost it in the final lap, but no one’s to blame,” said Leerdam. “This is a very tough track and I'm just glad I don't have to skate that heavy last lap myself." Asked about her preferred line-up she said: "I think last week's squad was very smooth, mostly because I'm used to training with Letitita [De Jong] and Michelle [De Jong]. Michelle opens strong, building it up. Then we accelerate and Letitita can follow my stroke very well, so I think that's ideal."

Japan's Maki Tsuji, Arisa Go and Konami Soga came third in 1:29.65, retaining their third place in the World Cup ranking behind Russia and the Netherlands, who are equal with one victory.

Track record for Roest

In the men's 5000m Roest started in the penultimate pair versus Graeme Fish (CAN) and set out in track record pace. Seitaro Ichinohe (JPN) had already broken the 2017 mark of 6:37.50 set by Jan Szyma?ski (POL), when he won the B Division in 6:25.64.

Danila Semerikov (RUS) bettered that new record by clocking 6:20.46, but Roest was just over a second faster in 6:19.38. The Dutchman skated a well-balanced race with five sub-30 and seven sub-31-second laps. Semerikov only skated his first sub-30 lap at the 3400m split, but concluded his race subsequently with three more sub-30-second laps. It had not worried Roesttoo much. "You know that he's quick towards the end, that's what he always does,” said Roest. Jac [coach Jac Orie] said I was on a good pace so I knew I was all right."

Semerikov's time turned out to be good enough for silver, with his compatriot Denis Yuskov (RUS) taking his second 5000m bronze of the season in 6:24.30. Yuskov surpassed Jorrit Bergsma (NED) in the World Cup ranking after last week's silver medalist came sixth in 6:26.12.

Roest stays on top of the long distance World Cup ranking with Semerikov in second place. "It's nice to be on top," he said. "I will skate in Kazakhstan [3rdleg of the ISU World Cup in December], but I'll skip Nagano [fourth leg in December], so I don't know what the classification looks like after that. I do definitely want to skate the World Cup final in Heerenveen [7-8 march].

Master class in Team Sprint

The Dutch men gave a master class in the Team Sprint. With Thomas Krol skating instead of Kai Verbij, the orange machine hammered out a time of 1:20.06. China, who took silver with only a 0.15 deficit in Minsk last week, did not even come close with 1:20.84 in Tomaszów. Canada took bronze in 1:20.96.

"I think this was perfect," Ronald Mulder (NED) said. The first skater of the Dutch team did not drop his team-mates by starting too fast. "That's the art, not to start too fast. That's what many teams do. They set a very fast first lap, but that's not what this race is about. It feels a bit unnatural to start holding back a bit. I have to drag the others into full speed smoothly and that went very well today. We skated almost as fast as we did at the World Championships in Inzell last year and this ice is much slower, so that says a lot."

Kjeld Nuis (NED), who was the third skater last week, was on second lap duty this week, leaving the third lap pain to team-mate Krol, who skated his first Team Sprint World Cup race in five years. "This one was by the book," Krol said. "I was nervous beforehand, because it was such a long time ago that I did a Team Event. If you make a mistake in an individual race, you only hurt yourself, but in a Team Event there's two others involved. But it went very well. We have a very good line-up, but the line-up with Kai [Verbij] is very good too. We all know each other very well and we've trained a lot together over the years."