World speed skating championship 1997

The 91st all- around world championship (55th for women) took place from February 14th to 16th, 1997 in M-Wave in Nagano, Japan. The two world championships were won by Gunda Niemann from Germany and Ids Postma from the Netherlands .

Participating Nations

Women

The field of participants in the women's all-round competition consisted of 30 female athletes from 17 nations.

• 3 starters: Germany , Japan , Netherlands , Russia ↑, United States     
• 2 starters: Italy , Canada ↑, Romania ↓   
• 1 starter: Kazakhstan ↑, Latvia , Norway , Austria ↓, Sweden , South Korea ↑, Ukraine , Hungary ↑, People's Republic of China ↑         

Athletes from Poland and Belarus were no longer represented compared to the previous edition . Overall, the field was two participants larger than in 1996.

Men

36 athletes from 19 nations started in the men's all-around competition:

• 3 starters: Germany , Italy ↑, Japan , Canada , Netherlands ↓, Russia , United States       
• 2 starters: France ↑, Norway ↓, Poland ↑   
• 1 starter: Belgium ↑, Kazakhstan ↓, New Zealand , Austria ↓, Sweden , Switzerland , South Korea ↓, Ukraine , Belarus         

Compared to the previous edition, athletes from Finland, Portugal, Romania and Hungary were no longer represented. Overall, the field was five participants smaller than in 1996.

competition

Women

The season was dominated by the introduction of the folding ice skate : The Dutch runners around Tonny de Jong had been using it since the beginning of winter in the World Cup and regularly beat Gunda Niemann , who had become all- around world champion five times since 1991 and in previous years also in the World Cup strongest long-distance athlete. In January de Jong won the title of all-around European champion . At the turn of the year, the German team also switched to folding ice skates, at the last two World Cups before the World Cup (at the end of January in Davos), Niemann won over 1,500 and 3,000 meters. In Nagano, the German was the fastest on three out of four legs, even over 500 meters she was just a quarter of a second behind Annamarie Thomas . In the all-around classification, Niemann was in first place with a clear lead over her teammate Claudia Pechstein , while European champion de Jong won the bronze medal at the World Championships.

The following table shows the twelve best placed athletes in the overall ranking of the all-around world championships who qualified for the final over 5000 meters. The number in brackets indicates the position per individual route, the fastest in each case in bold.

rank	Surname	500 meters	1500 meters	3000 meters	5000 meters	Total points
01	Gunda Niemann-Stirnemann	40.79 s (2)	2: 00.51 min (1)	4: 10.40 min (1)	7: 10.15 min (1)	165.708
02	Claudia Pechstein	41.31 s (9)	2: 02.52 min (3)	4: 13.95 min (2)	7: 17.04 min (3)	168.179
03	Tonny de Jong	41.09 s (6)	2: 03.08 min (5)	4: 15.91 min (3)	7: 14.39 min (2)	168.206
04th	Anni Friesinger	41.52 s (13)	2: 02.00 min (2)	4: 16.24 min (4)	7: 18.59 min (4)	168.751
05	Annamarie Thomas	40.53 s (1)	2: 02.79 min (4)	4: 18.45 min (6)	7: 30.70 min (9)	169,605
06th	Svetlana Bashanova	41.61 s (14)	2: 03.47 min (6)	4: 17.77 min (5)	7: 19.68 min (6)	169.695
07th	Lyudmila Prokaschowa	41.93 s (17)	2: 03.48 min (7)	4: 18.68 min (8)	7: 19.22 min (5)	170.125
08th	Mitsue Uehara	41.08 s (5)	2: 04.58 min (9)	4: 25.96 min (18)	7: 35.58 min (10)	170.733
09	Barbara de Loor	41.99 s (18)	2: 05.24 min (12)	4: 18.51 min (7)	7: 29.43 min (8)	171.764
10	Chiharu Nozaki	41.08 s (5)	2: 04.58 min (9)	4: 25.96 min (18)	7: 35.58 min (10)	172.490
11	Becky Sundstrom	40.89 s (3)	2: 05.66 min (13)	4: 26.51 min (19)	7: 41.50 min (11)	173.344
12	Varvara Barysheva	41.75 s (15)	2: 05.21 min (11)	4: 23.51 min (13)	7: 46.83 min (12)	174.087

Men

In 1997, the Dutch defending champion Rintje Ritsma did not achieve a result among the top three at any stage and was fifth overall. His team mate Ids Postma took his place : Postma ran one of the fastest two times on the 500-meter and 1500-meter distances and was able to maintain his lead on the longer distances (which Bart Veldkamp won). The two other medals were secured by the Japanese Keiji Shirahata and the German long-distance runner Frank Dittrich , who ran the second fastest time over 5000 and 10,000 meters behind Veldkamp.

The following table shows the twelve best placed athletes in the overall ranking of the all-around world championships who have qualified for the final over 5000 meters. The number in brackets indicates the position per individual route, the fastest in each case in bold.

rank	Surname	500 meters	5000 meters	1500 meters	10,000 meters	Total points
01	Ids Postma	37.36 s (2)	6: 49.09 min (8)	1: 51.78 min (1)	14: 07.54 min (4)	157.906
02	Keiji Shirahata	37.59 s (3)	6: 47.46 min (3)	1: 53.20 min (6)	14: 07.95 min (5)	158.466
03	Frank Dittrich	38.87 s (19)	6: 43.74 min (2)	1: 54.10 min (9)	13: 48.40 min (2)	158.687
04th	KC Boutiette	37.93 s (7)	6: 48.62 min (5)	1: 52.53 min (2)	14:08.75 min (6)	158.739
05	Rintje Ritsma	37.99 s (9)	6: 48.96 min (7)	1: 53.12 min (5)	14: 09.97 min (7)	159.090
06th	Bart Veldkamp	39.61 s (26)	6: 43.26 min (1)	1: 54.57 min (11)	13: 41.66 min (1)	159.209
07th	Hiroyuki Noake	37.70 s (4)	6: 51.32 min (11)	1: 53.11 min (4)	14: 38.53 min (11)	160.461
08th	Toru Aoyanagi	38.16 s (12)	6: 56.23 min (13)	1: 54.17 min (10)	14: 21.22 min (8)	160,900
09	Neal Marshall	37.96 s (8)	6: 59.02 min (17)	1: 53.68 min (7)	14: 26.24 min (9)	161.067
10	Dave Tamburrino	38.37 s (15)	6: 53.35 min (12)	1: 55.01 min (12)	14: 28.27 min (10)	161.454
11	Leave Sætre	40.10 s (30)	6: 47.97 min (4)	1: 56.65 min (22)	13: 54.46 min (3)	161.503
12	Jason Parker	38.17 s (13)	7: 05.64 min (25)	1: 52.96 min (3)	14: 52.95 min (12)	163.034

Web links

• Results on speedskatingnews.info: men , women

Individual evidence

1. ↑ dpa: Gunda Niemann rattles on the title. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. February 17, 1997, p. 15. Retrieved from Munzinger Online .