SPEED SKATING

Determined Eitrem (NOR) beats Ghiotto (ITA) in thrilling 5000m head-to-head

30 Nov 2024

#SpeedSkating

Sander Eitrem (NOR) beat Davide Ghiotto (ITA) in a fascinating head-to-head race in the 5000m at the ISU World Cup in Beijing on Saturday. The 22-year-old Norwegian took his career second World Cup gold, after also having won the 5000m in Tomaszów Mazowiecki in 2023. In the men’s 1000m, Jordan Stolz (USA) secured his seventh World Cup win out of seven races this season – but rivals Jenning de Boo (NED) and Ning Zhongyan (CHN) are getting closer...

Eitrem and Ghiotto put on a show

Before Sander Eitrem (NOR) and Davide Ghiotto (ITA) took the ice in the last pairing of the 5000m, Metoděj Jílek (CZE) had set a new World Junior record of 6 minutes and 12.99s. He would eventually finish fifth, because Beau Snellink (NED) and Chris Huizinga (NED) were faster at 6:11.68 and 6:12.08 respectively.

It was Snellink who led the field when Eitrem faced Ghiotto at the start. After last week’s 5000m win, Ghiotto decided to try to leave Eitrem behind early, but the Norwegian managed to hang in before taking over the initiative in the second part of the race.

Sander Eitrem (NOR), front, came out on top in the head-to-head final pair, taking gold ahead of Davide Ghiotto (ITA), back, after the two had set a blistering early pace © ISU

“When you skate against Ghiotto, he goes full gas and it was up to me to follow. It was really nice to skate against him and it surely helped me skate faster,” said Eitrem.

Despite ending up on the wrong side of the scoreboard against Eitrem, Ghiotto had also enjoyed the battle.

“It was hard today, but Sander was the best. I tried to take a little gap in the beginning, but it was not enough. I just hope Sander is very tired, because I’m dead. We skated under the track record for five, maybe six laps. It was very fast.”

Eitrem eventually finished in 6 minutes and 9.48s, just 0.64s short of the track record set by Nils van der Poel (SWE) at the 2022 Olympic Games. Ghiotto took silver in 6:10.04.

Snellink (NED) admitted to being a little jealous when he watched Eitrem and Ghiotto propel each other to faster lap times.

“When I saw the draw yesterday, I was a little disappointed, but there’s nothing you can do. I would have loved to skate against one of those two guys, and I don’t know what could have happened. Now I had to do it on my own, which is also good. I could skate my own race.”

Beau Snellink (NED), right, had led the field before the final pair took to the ice, but after a year away from the World Cup podium was happy to be among the medals once more © ISU

After going a year without any World Cup podium finishes, Snellink was glad to be back in the mix.

“This looks more like it,” he said. “Last week second, this week third, that’s stable and something to build on for the rest of the season.”

Ghiotto retained his lead in the long-distance World Cup ranking, with Eitrem sitting in second and Snellink in third place.

De Boo and Ning close in on undefeated Stolz

While Jordan Stolz (USA) won his seventh World Cup race to maintain his undefeated record this season, both Jenning de Boo (NED) and Ning Zhongyan (CHN) felt that they were closing in on the American phenomenon.

Starting in the seventh of 10 pairings, Ning managed to break the track record set by Thomas Krol (NED) at the 2022 Olympic Games by 0.01s in a time of 1 minute 7.91s.

The home crowd applauded, but the Chinese skater's delight only lasted one race before Stolz stopped the clock at 1:07.62 in the eighth pairing.

The undefeated Jordan Stolz (USA) won his seventh World Cup race and 11th in a row but was forced to break Ning Zhongyan's (CHN) fresh track record to keep the streak alive © ISU

With 1.07.82, De Boo got close in the ninth pairing. After last week’s gap of 1.11s, the difference this time was just 0.21s. Kjeld Nuis (NED) also came short in the final pairing, finishing fourth in 1:08.07.

Both De Boo and Nuis think that Stolz is still able to skate even faster than he has been doing.

“I got a lot closer than last week,” De Boo said. "But I don’t think [Stolz] went all-out. He was one of the few skaters who were slower than last week [in Nagano].

“I think that he might have been trying out something new, because normally, he wouldn’t skate a 25.0s first full lap.

“I don’t know what he was doing, but he shouldn’t become too sloppy, because Ning and I are chasing him.”

Stolz denied he had been trying out new things.

“I didn’t go quite as hard as I could have in the first lap. I’m a little tired so I didn’t want to burn it all up and not have a good second lap.”

De Boo had skated a 24.5s first full lap.

“I don’t think I could have matched that,” Stolz admitted. “I went at a good pace, being able to save enough energy for the last lap, but I wasn’t purposely trying to do something new.”

Jenning de Boo (NED), left, and Ning Zhongyan (CHN), right joined Stolz on the podium, but both sense that the gap is closing to the all-conquering American © ISU

Ning had enjoyed racing in front of a home crowd. “With this result. I would have won a medal at the 2022 Olympic Games on this track, so it’s very good,” he said.

“My opener 16.7s was a little bit slow, my personal best is 16.2, and then my first lap in 24.7 was crazy, too fast, so there’s still room for improvement.”

With two victories, Stolz confidently leads the 1000m ranking, with De Boo sitting in second and Cooper McLeod (USA), who finished sixth, in third place

Beijing program

The Beijing World Cup concludes with the second 500m, the Mass Start, and the Team Sprint for both genders on Sunday.

ISU World Cup Speed Skating Series events 2024/25:

Nov 22 - 24, 2024 Nagano / JPN

Nov 29 - Dec 01, 2024 Beijing / CHN

Jan 24 - 26, 2025 Calgary CAN

Jan 31 - Feb 02, 2025 Milwaukee / USA

Feb 21 - 23, 2025 Tomaszów Mazowiecki / POL

Feb 28 - Mar 02, 2025 Heerenveen / NED

Where to watch

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