World speed skating championship in 1998

All around world champion Ids Postma

The 92nd all- around world championship (56th women) took place from March 13th to 15th, 1998 in Thialf in Heerenveen , the Netherlands . Both Gunda Niemann-Stirnemann for women and Ids Postma for men managed to defend their title from last year.

Participating Nations

Women

The field of participants in the women's all-round competition consisted of 28 female athletes from 15 nations.

• 3 starters: Germany , Japan , Netherlands , Russia , United States     
• 2 starters: Canada , Norway ↑, Romania   
• 1 starter: Finland ↑, Italy ↓, Kazakhstan , Austria , Czech Republic ↑, Ukraine , Belarus ↑       

Compared to the previous edition , athletes from China, Latvia, Sweden, South Korea and Hungary were no longer represented . Overall, the field was two participants smaller than in 1997.

Men

37 athletes from 22 nations started in the men's all-around competition:

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

Overall, the field was one participant larger than in 1997.

competition

Women

Gunda Niemann-Stirnemann won her seventh world championship title in the all-around event , won three of the individual courses and led a German triple victory in front of Claudia Pechstein and Anni Friesinger . She took the top spot after the 3000 meter race, which she finished with a world record time of 4: 05.08 minutes. Even over 5000 meters, she missed Pechstein's record three weeks earlier by just less than a second.

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	40.57 s (9)	1: 58.69 min (1)	4: 05.08 min (1)	7: 00.41 min (1)	163.020
02	Claudia Pechstein	40.12 s (4)	1: 59.26 min (2)	4: 07.36 min (2)	7: 05.70 min (2)	163.669
03	Anni Friesinger	40.40 s (6)	2:01.02 min (8)	4: 11.57 min (3)	7: 13.46 min (6)	166.014
04th	Tonny de Jong	40.87 s (11)	2: 02.28 min (12)	4: 12.88 min (4)	7: 06.34 min (3)	166.410
05	Jennifer Rodriguez	40.51 s (8)	2: 00.63 min (6)	4: 15.33 min (7)	7: 18.31 min (7)	167.106
06th	Lyudmila Prokaschowa	41.20 s (15)	2: 01.72 min (9)	4: 14.27 min (5)	7: 12.24 min (4)	167.375
07th	Annamarie Thomas	40.08 s (3)	2:00, 12 min (5)	4: 16.67 min (8)	7: 26.73 min (9)	167.571
08th	Emese Hunyady	40.25 s (5)	1: 59.93 min (4)	4: 17.09 min (9)	7: 28.48 min (10)	167.922
09	Tatiana Trapesnikova	40.45 s (7)	2: 02.00 min (10)	4: 17.47 min (10)	7: 20.19 min (8)	168.046
10	Barbara de Loor	41.67 s (19)	2: 02.13 min (11)	4: 15.26 min (6)	7: 12.62 min (5)	168.185
11	Becky Sundstrom	39.97 s (2)	2: 00.68 min (7)	4: 19.35 min (14)	7: 33.80 min (11)	168,801
12	Chris Witty	39.45 s (1)	1: 59.46 min (3)	4: 22.57 min (18)	7: 38.20 min (12)	168.851

Men

In the duel with his compatriot Rintje Ritsma , defending champion Ids Postma from the Netherlands clearly prevailed. He ran the fastest time on the first three tracks and before the final race he had a lead of the equivalent of seventeen seconds over Ritsma, of which he only lost two and a half over 10,000 meters. The bronze medal went to Roberto Sighel , who became world champion in 1992 .

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	36.48 s (1)	6: 33.09 min (1)	1: 48.85 min (1)	13: 45.91 min (4)	153.367
02	Rintje Ritsma	37.17 s (4)	6: 34.68 min (3)	1: 48.86 min (2)	13: 43.35 min (2)	154.091
03	Roberto Sighel	37.54 s (6)	6: 39.68 min (6)	1: 51.19 min (3)	13: 45.18 min (3)	155.830
04th	Bart Veldkamp	39.02 s (27)	6: 34.60 min (2)	1: 51.57 min (5)	13: 29.19 min (1)	156.129
05	KC Boutiette	36.90 s (2)	6: 40.01 min (7)	1: 52.29 min (10)	14:05:13 min (9)	156.587
06th	Jelmer Beulenkamp	37.95 s (14)	6: 39.15 min (5)	1: 51.46 min (4)	14:02.94 min (8)	157.165
07th	Keiji Shirahata	37.78 s (11)	6: 48.16 min (12)	1: 52.37 min (11)	13: 48.53 min (5)	157.478
08th	Frank Dittrich	38.65 s (24)	6: 38.90 min (4)	1: 54.20 min (21)	13: 52.23 min (6)	158.217
09	Uwe Tonat	37.76 s (10)	6: 47.86 min (11)	1: 52.65 min (13)	14:05:35 min (10)	158.363
10	Steven Elm	38.10 s (16)	6: 49.63 min (17)	1: 52.13 min (7)	14: 00.06 min (7)	158.442
11	Dave Tamburrino	37.74 s (9)	6: 49.36 min (16)	1: 53.69 min (18)	14: 16.25 min (11)	159.384
12	Sergei Zybenko	37.49 s (5)	6: 52.90 min (20)	1: 52.26 min (8)	14: 34.76 min (12)	159.938

Web links

• Results on speedskatingnews.info: men , women