Speed skater Nico Ihle is halfway through the Sprint World Championships in Changchun, China, within striking distance of the podium places. After two of four races, the Chemnitzer finished fourth in the overall standings with 69,905 points. Only 500 m Olympic champion Havard Lorentzen (Norway/69.495) and the Dutch Kai Verbij (69.640) and Kjeld Nuis (69.695) are better.
One week after the end of the disappointing Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang, Ihle had made a solid start at the start as ninth over 500 m in 35.04 seconds. His backlog to the once again successful Lorentzen (34.89/track record) was significantly lower than in South Korea. At the Winter Games, Ihle finished eighth place almost half a second behind Lorentzen.
Also over 1000 m Ihle did better than at the season highlight. In 1:09.73 minutes, the Olympic eighth placed the fifth-best time on the ice and advanced in the overall standings. Olympic champion Nuis (1:08.97/track record) was once again unbeatable.
The Sprint World Championship for Joel Dufter (Inzell) was disappointing. The second German starter didn’t make it over 500 m (35.68) and didn’t make it over 20. He was then disqualified over twice the distance.
In the women’s category Gabriele Hirschbichler (Inzell), the only German starter, finished twelfth after two runs (77.860). The 34-year-old had initially missed out on a top-10 finish in her twelfth place of over 500 m (39.14), but was eighth over 1000 m (1:17.44) to reach the partial goal.
The Japanese Nao Kodaira (75.070) is in the lead. The 500 m Olympic gold medallist improved the 9-year-old track record of Jenny Wolf (37.98) in 37.23 seconds on her parade track, and over 1000 m (1:15.68) Kodaira finished fourth in the victory of Olympic champion Jorien ter Mors (Netherlands/1:14.62). ter Mors also set a track record.
On Sunday there will be another run over both distances. Ihle is aiming for a place among the top five in the overall ranking.