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Written by Donna Spencer, THE CANADIAN PRESS
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Wednesday, 14 November 2007 |
Canada's Jeremy Wotherspoon skates in the men's 1.000-meter speedskating World Cup race, Saturday in Kearns, Utah. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Douglas C. Pizac
CALGARY - Jeremy Wotherspoon says he's got the legs to chase another world record.
The 31-year-old speed skater from Red Deer, Alta., heads into the Essent ISU World Cup starting Friday at Olympic Oval as the reigning world record-holder in the men's 500 metres.
Wotherspoon set a new mark of 34.03 seconds at the World Cup opener in Salt Lake City last Friday to win the 500 and erase the previous best of 34.23.
He also won the 1,000 metres and a second 500 metres Saturday for a triple gold weekend.
"I've raced lots of times in my race and I've never had trouble being at the top of my game for two weekends in a row," Wotherspoon said Wednesday from rinkside at the Oval.
"I definitely think I can skate better. If I race better, I think I can still go faster here."
The men's and women's 500 kick off the lone Canadian stop on the World Cup circuit Friday at noon and Wotherspoon, whose owns a career 60 World Cup victories, will race another one on Saturday. The competition concludes Sunday with the team pursuits, which are the relays.
The Canadian team won nine medals in the first World Cup of the season in Utah.
Wotherspoon, six-time Olympic medallist Cindy Klassen of Winnipeg, Christine Nesbitt of London, Ont., Kristina Groves of Ottawa, Shannon Rempel and Clara Hughes of Winnipeg and Denny Morrison of Fort St. John, B.C., are Canada's top medal contenders heading into the Calgary races.
Wotherspoon's record has his teammates walking taller heading back to their home track.
"We have such a solid team this year, especially with Jeremy breaking the world record and winning the 1,000 metres, he's really leading our team right now," Klassen said. "I think that he's sparking that fire within all of us.
"Whenever he touches the ice, it seems everybody stops to watch. His technique is so beautiful and when he's racing and he's on and it doesn't even look like he's trying, it's so smooth."
The World Cup in Calgary will include 245 athletes from 27 countries.
The Olympic Ovals of Salt Lake City and Calgary are rivals for having the fastest ice in the world because of cold climates and high elevation.
Wotherspoon's was one of three world records set in Salt Lake City and another record was tied. The two facilities have made it interesting with a friendly wager.
If four records are set in Calgary, the Utah Olympic Oval has to hang the banner of the Calgary Oval until the end of the World Cup season. Klassen holds the world's fastest times in three distances: the 1,000, 1,500 and 3,000.
Wotherspoon would like to end the mystique that surrounds going 33 second flat in the 500.
"I can definitely do it. It's pretty easy to make up four hundredths in a race," he said. "It's something I don't want to be thinking about when I'm on the start line.
"It's motivating, so I'll use it as motivation to make sure I'm in the moment and I'm focusing on what I'm doing and really part of my race."
Wotherspoon is fresh physically and mentally because he took all of last season off from competition. He spent part of his hiatus gutting cod on a fishing boat in the Norwegian sea and thinking about what he needed to do to go faster on the ice.
"I never would have come back from a season off if I didn't think I could be as good as I ever was if not better," Wotherspoon said. "It would be pretty frustrating to take a year off and come back and race at a lower speed or get less out of it than before."
He's been working with new coach Michael Crowe, an American hired by Speed Skating Canada to work specifically with a group of male sprinters, led by Wotherspoon.
"I think our focus is more technical than it was, more on doing things that carry over to racing," Wotherspoon explained. "A lot of guys in our group have benefited from that and I've definitely benefited from that."
Nesbitt, 22, is coming off her first World Cup gold, which she won in the 1,500 metres.
"It gives me a lot of confidence knowing I can win a gold medal in any distance," Nesbitt said. "I think it's something I can do again. I skated a lot faster than I ever have in that race."
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