HAMAR, Norway (February 12, 2012) - World and Olympic Champion Shani Davis (Chicago, Ill.) captured a gold in today’s 1500m at the Essent ISU World Cup in Hamar. Davis skated a time of 1:47.08, ahead of Havard Bokko (NOR) in 2nd with 1:47.2, and Stefan Groothius (NED) taking 3rd with 1:47.55. Davis’ victory was his first in the 1500m this season, and moved him to the top of the overall 1500m World Cup leaderboard.
"It was my best effort under less-than-optimal ice conditions," said Davis. "Lots os work to do, but every time I have raced I’ve improved. Just happy to be moving forward and making progress."
Brian Hansen (Glenview, Ill.) finished 9th in today’s 1500m A group with a time of 1:48.89, followed by teammate Jonathan Kuck (Champaign, Ill.) in 10th with 1:48.92. Joshua Wood (Sacramento, CA) placed 19th in today’s 1500m B group with a time of 1:53.00, while Alex Ochowicz (Palo Alto, CA) posted a 1:53.67 for 21st place in his World Cup debut.
Team USA skated a strong Team Pursuit, with the squad of Davis, Hansen and Kuck placing 4th, just .2 seconds off the podium behind Russia (3:45.42), Korea (3:36.68) and Germany (3:46.87).
"I'm pretty happy with the 1500m, and in the Team Pursuit we just missed the podium but learned a lot from the race and have a lot to look forward to," said Hansen.
Team USA’s ladies placed 8th in today’s Team Pursuit, with Jilleanne Rookard (Woodhaven, MI), Maria Lamb (River Falls, WI), and Nancy Swider-Peltz, Jr. (Wheaton, Ill.) posting a finish time of 3:09.85. The Russian squad took gold with 3:04.83, Poland won silver (3:05.57), and Korea won bronze with 3:05.65.
Rookard (Woodhaven, MI) finished 17th (4:15.84) in today’s 3000m A group. Martina Sablikova (CZE) won gold with a time of 4:05.88, followed by Stephanie Beckert (GER) at 4:06.42, and Ireen Wust (NED) in third (4:06.57).
Lamb took the 14th in the 3000m B group posting 4:21.11, and Swider-Peltz Jr. finished in 18th place with a time of 4:26.07.
Full results from today’s World Cup in Hamar are available here. Team USA’s Allround skaters now head to Moscow for next week’s Essent ISU World Allround Championships, February 18-19.