World speed skating all-around championship 1931

All- around world champion Clas Thunberg from Finland and his seventh-placed compatriot Ossi Blomqvist

The 32 multi-discipline World Cup was on 21 and 22 February 1931 on the Tölöviken in Finnish Helsinki discharged. There were only men's races. The Finnish Clas Thunberg won the world title for the fifth time .

Participating Nations

The field of participants consisted of 22 athletes from 7 nations.

• 7 starters: Finland 
• 5 starters: Norway 
• 3 starters: Japan 
• 2 starters: Netherlands , Austria , Sweden   
• 1 starter: Estonia 

Overall, the field was two participants larger than in 1930 , when only athletes from Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands had participated.

competition

The Finn Clas Thunberg had won all competitions in the winter of 1931 in which he competed. In January he had set a 500 meter world record in St. Moritz . At the European Championships in Stockholm in early February, Thunberg was the fastest over the 500 meters and 1500 meters, while his compatriot Ossi Blomqvist had won the two long distances of 5000 and 10,000 meters and came second. Thunberg, who was 37 at the time of the World Cup, had won four world titles between 1923 and 1929 and had set himself the goal of becoming five-time world champion like Oscar Mathisen . The defending champion was Michael Staksrud , who in 1930 had led a Norwegian double success ahead of Ivar Ballangrud in Thunberg's absence . Staksrud did not take part in the 1931 World Cup.

The Helsinki races took place on a track on the frozen lake Tölöviken. Instead of the usual 400 meters, the ice rink had been lengthened to 500 meters in order to better distribute the audience drawn by the successes of Thunberg and Blomqvist on the long side. The result was determined according to the semalog system: The times were measured in seconds and then offset against the length of the distance covered and converted into points. At the end of the competition, the runner with the fewest points won. If a speed skater won three of the four distances, he was world champion regardless of the score.

As in the European Championship, Thunberg won the races over the two shorter distances of 500 and 1500 meters - both ahead of Bernt Evensen . Over 500 meters, the two competed side by side in the same run. Thunberg made several false starts, which Evensen remembered greatly irritated. Thunberg won the race by over a second. Although he was not among the fastest three on the two longer distances, he won the all-around competition with about one and a half points ahead of Evensen and thus became five times world champion. Ivar Ballangrud took third place. Ossi Blomqvist won the races over 5,000 and 10,000 meters, but had lost so much time on the short distances that he ultimately took seventh place.

rank	Surname	500 meters	Pt.	5,000 meters	Pt.	1,500 meters	Pt.	10,000 meters	Pt.	Total pts.
1	Clas Thunberg	44.4 (1)	44,400	9: 06.3 (4)	54.630	2: 24.4 (1)	48.133	18: 56.3 (8)	56.815	203.978
2	Bernt Evensen	45.7 (2)	45,700	9: 06.6 (5)	54.660	2: 27.2 (2)	49.067	18: 40.4 (4)	56.020	205.446
3	Ivar Ballangrud	46.4 (3)	46,400	9: 11.8 (6)	55.180	2: 29.4 (4)	49,800	18: 47.5 (5)	56.375	207.755
4th	Armand Carlsen	48.9 (16)	48,900	9: 03.5 (3)	54,350	2: 31.1 (5)	50.367	18: 29.9 (3)	55.495	209.111
5	Adolf van der Scheer	46.5 (4)	46,500	9: 16.6 (8)	55.660	2: 29.0 (3)	49.667	19: 13.5 (12)	57.675	209.501
6th	Rudolf Riedl	47.8 (11)	47,800	9: 20.5 (13)	56.050	2: 31.1 (5)	50.367	18: 48.2 (6)	56.410	210.626
7th	Ossi Blomqvist	46.9 (7)	46,900	8: 58.6 (1)	53.860	2: 47.4 (21)	55,800	18: 22.2 (1)	55.110	211.670
8th	Uuno Pietila	47.8 (11)	47,800	9: 18.0 (9)	55,800	2: 34.8 (13)	51,600	18: 57.7 (10)	56.885	212.085
9	Jorma Ruissalo	46.8 (6)	46,800	9: 15.0 (7)	55,500	2: 33.7 (9)	51.233	19: 34.2 (16)	58.710	212.243
10	Siem Pagans	48.5 (15)	48,500	9: 24.6 (15)	56,460	2: 32.5 (7)	50.833	18: 55.4 (7)	56.770	212.563
11	Tokuo Kitani	47.2 (8)	47,200	9: 31.0 (17)	57.100	2: 33.9 (11)	51,300	19: 25.2 (15)	58.260	213,860
12	Alexander Alexejeff	49.7 (20)	49,700	9: 19.8 (11)	55.980	2: 34.3 (12)	51,433	18: 57.1 (9)	56.855	213,968
13	Yrjö Päivinen	47.9 (13)	47,900	9: 34.7 (18)	57.470	2: 33.5 (8)	51.167	19: 21.5 (13)	58.075	214.611
14th	Fritz Jungblut	49.0 (18)	49,000	9: 25.0 (16)	56,500	2: 35.5 (15)	51.833	19: 06.4 (11)	57.320	214.653
15th	Georg Rahmberg	49.3 (19)	49,300	9: 19.6 (10)	55.960	2: 34.8 (13)	51,600	19: 22.3 (14)	58.115	214.975
16	Thorstein Stenbek	53.0 (21)	53,000	9: 01.6 (2)	54.160	2: 38.5 (19)	52.833	18: 25.2 (2)	55.260	215.253
17th	Gunnar Almér	46.5 (4)	46,500	9: 40.6 (20)	58.060	2: 33.8 (10)	51.267	19: 53.0 (17)	59.650	215.476
18th	Yasuo Kawamura	47.6 (9)	47,600	9: 36.1 (19)	57.610	2: 35.5 (15)	51.833	19: 54.8 (18)	59.740	216.783
19th	Shouzo Ishihara	47.6 (9)	47,600	9: 53.4 (21)	59,340	2: 39.5 (20)	53.167	20: 03.3 (20)	60.165	220.271
20th	Aleksandr Mitt	48.0 (14)	48,000	9: 57.6 (22)	59.750	2: 37.6 (18)	52.533	20: 03.2 (19)	60.160	220.453
21st	Erling Lindboe	59.4 (22)	59,400	9: 20.4 (12)	56.040	2: 36.1 (17)	52.033	DNS		DNF
22nd	Åke Ekman	48.9 (16)	48,900	9: 22.1 (14)	56.210	DNS		DNS		DNF

Web link

• Results of the all- around world championship 1931 on speedskatingnews.info

Individual evidence

1. ^ Clas Thunberg: Alene mot hele Norge. Ekko Forlag, Oslo 1947. Page 89. “Ikke minst fordi jeg foresatte meg å come igjen […] for å ta mitt femte mesterskap […].” (In German, for example: “Not least because I had made up my mind […] come back to get my fifth championship [...].) "
2. ^ Clas Thunberg: Isen var mitt liv. Söderström & Co., Borgå 1964. page 142.
3. ^ Clas Thunberg: Alene mot hele Norge. Ekko Forlag, Oslo 1947. page 97. "Jeg følte meg nå så sikker på meg selv at any kunne tillate meg å gi igjen for gamle synder and tyvstartet mostly hele syv ganger, to Bernts store fortvilelse."
4. ↑ Thunberg states in his biography that Blomqvist fell more than 500 meters, lost the safe second place and was very annoyed (Clas Thunberg: Isen var mitt liv. Söderström & Co., Borgå 1964. page 142). Over 500 meters, however, Blomqvist finished seventh, just 2.5 seconds behind Thunberg. His performance on the 1500 meter course was much worse, where he took last place with over 20 seconds behind.