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Wotherspoon happy about first World Cup results
After a very strong pre-season with fast times in the 500m, Jeremy Wotherspoon continued his strong comeback after a sabbatical year by winning all 500m’s at the first two World Cups of the season in Salt Lake City and Calgary and improving his personal best times in the 500m and 1000m. On top that, he skated a new 500m world record. Still, he decided not to go to Europe for the remaining Fall World Cups. Back in Canada, Wotherspoon talks about his first World Cup races and looks forward to the rest of the season.
By Jolanda Abbes
Jeremy Wotherspoon looks back on a very strong pre-season, which led him to some fast times in the 500m and 1000m at the Canadian World Cup Team Selection in October. A couple of weeks later, at the first World Cup in Salt Lake City, he stunned the speed skating world by winning both 500m’s and skating an amazing new world record of 34.03 in that same distance. Moreover, in the first 1000m in Salt Lake City he finished third, and in the second 1000m he improved his personal best time by skating a new Canadian record, which earned him another gold medal.
The weekend after that, at the World Cup in Calgary, Wotherspoon also won both 500m’s and finished second in the 1000m. All in all, it has been an impressive comeback after taking a year off from speed skating to regain his motivation for the sport and to give his body some well-deserved rest. Wotherspoon reflects: “I am very happy with my last two World Cups. I didn't know what to expect beforehand, but I knew I could skate fast and I just wanted to have fun and think about the things that make me faster.”
Of course, his new world record in the 500m, which is bringing him very close to the 34 seconds barrier, is amazing, but improving a six-year-old personal best time in the 1000m may be called quite an accomplishment as well. His old personal best was 1:07.72, but in Salt Lake City he managed to take a huge chunk off of that time and improved it to 1:07.03. “The biggest reason why my 1000m has improved so much is because I have improved my top speed. I have made some technical changes that helped me get faster and at the first two World Cups it gave me an edge in the 1000m.”
With his 500m and his 1000m both being so strong now, one cannot help but wonder which distance he’s pleased with the most now: his world record 500m or his much improved 1000m. But Wotherspoon explains that he is happy with both of them: “Before this season it had been so long since I had skated a personal best in those distances, so I feel really good about them both.” Wotherspoon managed to improve his personal best in the 500m for the first time in four years by skating a new Canadian record at the Canadian World Cup Team Selection at the start of the season, which in its turn was crushed by his world record a couple of weeks later.
After the first two World Cups in North America, the World Cup circuit moved to Europe, but Wotherspoon decided to stay home instead: “I am skipping the December World Cups so I can train a bit more for the competitions later this season instead of so many races in a row.” As a result, Wotherspoon will not be racing at any other international competitions this year: “The next international competition for me will be the World Sprints. I plan on doing all the other competitions after that too. I am only skipping the two worlds cups in December.”
All in all, it has been a great start of the season for Wotherspoon, and his performances seem to be promising for the competitions that are still to come. As explained, his next international competition will be the World Sprint Championships in Heerenveen, which will take place on January 19 and 20. Because of his improved 1000m and his already strong 500m Wotherspoon is now considered to be one of the main medal contenders in all the individual distances at that competition and as a result for the overall Sprint title.
