Estonian speed skater Marten Liiv 14th in Winter Olympics 1000m event
Marten Liiv placed a somewhat disappointing 14th in the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics 1000-meter speed skate.
Milano Cortina is Liiv's third Winter Games, and he kicked off his campaign in his favorite event, posting a time of 1:09.06.
He had set a new Estonian record of 1:06.73 in that discipline last November.
Speed skaters race in pairs rather than having a mass start; there were 15 pairs taking part in the 1,000 meters, and Liiv was paired with Poland's Damian Żurek, who ultimately finished sixth.
The big favorite at a time when the U.S. vice president and secretary of state were in Italy for the opening of the Games was American Jordan Stolz, a two-time world champion in the distance and the fastest of all time over that distance, with a time of 1:05.37.
Liiv had finished seventh with a time of 1:07.58 in Beijing four years ago, and his Milano Cortina time was slower, at 1:09.06.
Liiv covered the first 200 meters in 16.37, a solid time for him, but his pace then dropped and the Estonian clearly lost out to Żurek.
"The first 200 meters were actually very good. 16.37. The back straight was also good, but where I lost a lot of time was the second inner curve. That's where the race went," Liiv told ERR.
"The centrifugal force somehow pushed me out, I couldn't build up the speed. A lot of speed was lost there. The lactic acid also came quite early, unfortunately."
"The speed is actually very good and there in the legs. It's just that at the key moment, where I needed to increase the speed further, it unfortunately didn't work today," he added. "Today is certainly tough, but I'll analyze the races with the coaches, take the good things with us and rather leave the negative behind."
Stolz lived up to the hype and took his maiden Olympic gold, also setting an Olympic record of 1:06.28. Dutchman Jenning de Boo (1:06.78) and China's Ning Zhongyan (1:07.34) took silver and bronze.
--
Editor: Andrew Whyte
