Sablikova coy on future after storming to 17th world speed skating title
BySportsbeat
Published 11/02/2017 at 20:21 GMT
Martina Sablikova refused to be drawn on whether this would her ninth and final 5,000m world speed skating title after storming to gold in Gangneung, Korea.
Eurosport
Image credit: Eurosport
The Czech long distance specialist and 17-time world champion turns 30 in May and is committed to adding to her three career Olympic golds in Pyeongchang.
But after winning a ninth straight world title over her signature distance, she admitted this could be it as Germany's Claudia Pechstein and Canada's Ivanie Blondin completed the podium.
"I'm going for the Olympics first and I really don’t know whether I'll go on in 2019," said Sablikova.
"It was very hard. In the training the ice was very fast but it was really slow in competition and that made it tough."
Elsewhere, Kjeld Nuis took his maiden world title in the men's 1000m and Heather Bergsma took gold in the women's 1000m.
And 27-time world champion Sven Kramer closed the day with gold in the 10,000m, clocking a new Dutch record and personal best as team-mate Jorrit Bergsma claimed silver and Germany’s Patrick Beckert took bronze.
If it was just another world title for three-time Olympic champion Kramer them Nuis was rather emotional, after winning after two silvers and two bronzes previously.
"On the podium I just thought: don't cry, don't cry," he said.
"As a little kid I saw Rintje Ritsma on the podium with the national anthem, and now it's played for me, that's super.
"I felt the pressure but when I'm on the ice, I don't feel it. I've created this pressure myself.
"I did not lose one singe international 1000m race this season, so it was logic that everybody would say I had to win the World title too, so pulling it off is great."
Sportsbeat 2017
Scan me
Related Topics
Share this article
Advertisement
Advertisement