For the second World Cup run in a row, Ragen Weklund (21) took the podium after a record sprint.
Expectations were high regarding how fast Weklund could go in Salt Lake City, where the vast majority of world skating records have been set. And Wiklund has made an appearance again, with third place in the Olympic arena since 2002.
Wiklund entered a time of 3.55.51 in doubles with the world record holder, a time well over three seconds longer than the previous Norwegian record, 3.58.95, in distance. It was Wiklund himself who put Heerenveen on last season.
3.55.51 was good enough to finish third in the race, 2.62 seconds behind Erin Schouten and 33 hundredths behind Antoinette de Jong in second.
The first four rounds came cheap. I was a little surprised that Martina was so quick at first. I remember well the World Cup race last season, where she opened strong and took me in at the end. “It was great to be running a reverse race now,” Wiklund tells Viaplay after the race.
Weklund finished fourth in the 3,000m in the water last season, with Sablikova second. In the same pigeons, Wiklund took gold in the 1500m, and the 21-year-old appears to have several good medal chances at the Olympics in February.
I may not let my self-confidence rise quickly. It’s February that applies, and every weekend now I deal with the situation that there’s no reason to at least make me worse. I try to put the list in the same place every weekend and do the job, she says.
Schotten’s is the second-fastest women’s 3,000m race ever, one second short of Martina Sablikova’s world record (3.52.02). Only seven women have progressed faster than Wiklund’s 3.55.51 mark in history.
The 21-year-old entered her first World Cup podium when she finished third in the 5,000m race in Stavanger two weeks ago. Until then, Weklund had set a personal record, with a time of 6.56.46, a second and a half ahead of the Norwegian record of Marin Hoogely (6.54.98).
Only five other Norwegian women have made the podium in individual skiing at the World Cup since the start of the World Cup in the 1985/86 season. Only Bjørg Eva Jensen and Edel Therese Høiseth have won a singles race since the World Cup kicked off, with Høiseth being the last. Hoysth won a total of two World Cup races, the last of which was in Calgary in January 2000.
Wicklund will walk 1,000m at the team’s pace on Saturday, while she will walk 1,500m on Sunday.
note! Earlier on Friday, they ran the 500m in Salt Lake City. Julie Nystad Samsonsen (38.23), Henrik Vagerli Rock (34.47), Bjorn Magnussen (34.49) and Paul Meren Christensen (35.38) all broke personal records in Group B, while Martin Ribsrud (38, 40) touched his personal record. In the first group I went Newly married Father Havard Holmfjord Lorentzen In eighth place with a time of 34.44.
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