Speedskating-online

Highs and lows for Denny Morrison at first two World Cups

 

Despite the fact that we are only two World Cup weekends into the new long track speed skating season, Denny Morrison can already look back on some great highlights, like a gold medal in the 1000m. At the same time however, some of his other races were not so fortunate. With the European Fall World Cups just around the corner, Morrison talks about his most important ups and downs over the past two World Cups in Salt Lake City and Calgary.

 

By Jolanda Abbes

 

After a very good pre-season with fast times in the 1000m and 1500m, expectations for the first World Cups were high for Denny Morrison. And in fact, after just two weekends he can already look back on some impressive highlights. He won a silver medal in the 1500m at the first World Cup in Salt Lake City, and at the next World Cup in Calgary he managed to win the gold medal in the 1000m. On top of that, he finished first in the Team Pursuit in Calgary, together with teammates Arne Dankers and Steven Elm.

 

At the same time, however, Morrison was forced to deal with some unfortunate incidents that led him to a disqualification and a fall. In the first 1000m at the World Cup in Salt Lake City he was paired with Pekka Koskela, who opened so fast that Morrison found himself faced with a problematic crossover. Koskela and Morrison hit blades, after which Morrison was disqualified and Koskela went on to skate a new world record. At the World Cup in Calgary Morrison fell, just a few steps into his 1500m. Still, despite these unfortunate races Morrison looks back satisfied: “I have a very positive feeling about the past two World Cup weekends. Of course I’m not too happy about the bad luck I had, but that only adds to my experience as a skater. I’m also happy that I managed a medal each weekend.”

 

On top of the mentioned medals, Morrison managed to skate several new personal best times. In the 1500m in Salt Lake City he improved his best time to 1:42.79, which was good for a silver medal, and in Calgary he shaved 0.01 seconds off his old best time in the 500m, improving it to 35.03: “My 500m seems to be getting better, due mainly to a slightly faster opener.” Unlike last season, Morrison is now capable of opening 9.9 in the 500m. As for his new personal best time in the 1500m, he said: “The 1500m personal best was somewhat unexpected, but I'm sure the fast ice helped. I still think there is plenty of room for improvement in the last lap of my 1500m though.”

 

 

 

After his disqualification in the first 1000m in Salt Lake City, Morrison was determined to race a better second 1000m at the same World Cup: “The disqualification in my first 1000m motivated me to work on my opener for the next one that weekend. Which I did – I skated a 16.5 personal best opener. However, it made me try too hard and get really tight for the rest of my race, unfortunately, which caused a disappointing 8th place finish.” In this race Morrison clocked a 1:07.59.

 

The weekend after his unfortunate 1000m’s in Salt Lake City, Morrison fell on the first day of the Calgary World Cup, just a few steps into his 1500m against Erben Wennemars. As a result, his opener was not good at all, but he still managed a couple of really good laps after that: 25.1, 26.1, 27.9. For comparison: Simon Kuipers, who won the gold medal after skating a time of 1:42.37, skated laps of 25.5, 26.4 and 27.0. Morrison reflects: “After the fall in my 1500m, I received a lot of support and congratulations from my family and friends. After finishing my warm-down for that race, I never felt like I had a terrible race. I felt like I had a terrible couple of steps and fall in my opener, and then a great 1400m race. This made me focus on my 1000m in a new way. I didn’t want to skate a tight and inefficient race again like the one I completed in Salt Lake City. I focused on skating technically well, and trusted that the speed would come. And it did.”

 

In this 1000m, on the last day of the Calgary World Cup, Morrison skated in the fourth pair of ten and saw none of the other skaters being able to beat his time of 1:07.25, which is just 0.01 seconds off his personal best time. Like in his race against Koskela in Salt Lake City, he started in the inner lane against a skater that is well known for his fast opener (Keiichiro Nagashima), so another problematic crossover could have been at hand: “I thought briefly about the crossover being a problem again. However, I came out of that corner much more confident that I had more speed than my opponent this time around, and I knew it wouldn’t be a problem. The race was far from perfect though. I slipped twice in the same corner, once in the outer and once in the inner, in the third and final corners. I don't even really know what caused the slips, but I had my hand down both times, and especially in the last lap I was twisted somewhat out of control. I kept my feet moving both times, but certainly lost a lot of speed and efficiency. This is one of the things I love about speed skating: that there is always room for improvement!”

 

After all the ups and downs of the past two World Cup weekends, eventually Morrison managed to end the Calgary weekend on an even higher note when he, shortly after his golden 1000m, also won the gold medal in the Team Pursuit, together with teammates Arne Dankers and Steven Elm. “I don’t think the Dutch had their best possible team skating though, and several of the other teams didn't have enough speed towards the end of the race. I thought the Italians would finish better in particular. Our team skated pretty consistent laps, and came out ahead. All in all, it was a great way to end the day!”

 

This weekend the World Cups will continue in Kolomna, but the next stop on the World Cup circuit for Morrison will be Heerenveen, the weekend after that.

 

Photo credits: Erik Pasman, Schaatsfoto's online

 

Back to feature stories