Speed skater Claudia Pechstein clearly missed the finals at the Allround World Championships in Amsterdam. The five-time Olympic champion from Berlin finished the 1500 m race with 127.517 points and finished 13th overall and missed the eighth place in front of the final 5000 m by 13.69 seconds.
Long-distance specialist Pechstein only ran the eleventh-best time on the 1928 Olympic Stadium open-air track in the third of four races in 2:03.53 minutes and was unable to improve decisively in the overall classification in order to qualify for her show track.
The second German starter, Gabriele Hirschbichler from Inzell, needed 2:05.48 minutes for the 1500 m and finished 18th with 138.747 points.
It leads the Japanese Miho Takagi, Olympic champion in team pursuit, second over 1500 and third over 1000 m, with a total of 121.912 points ahead of the Dutch local heroine Ireen Wüst (123.073). Wüst, who finished second in the Allround World Championships three times in a row last time, has to make up 11.61 seconds on Takagi over the 5000m.
Record World Champion and defending champion Sven Kramer (Netherlands) can win Allround gold for the tenth time. The only German starter among the men is Moritz Geisreiter from Inzell.