THE CANADIAN PRESS
RICHMOND, B.C. — Kristina Groves gets to keep this gold medal.
The Ottawa native joined forces with Christine Nesbitt of London, Ont., and Brittany Schussler of Winnipeg to win the women’s team pursuit Sunday at the world singles distances speedskating championships.
Groves had a gold medal in the 1,500 taken from her Friday after she nudged one of the pucks on the dividing line in a turn. There was nothing wrong with her skate in the pursuit, helping Canada clock two minutes 58.25 seconds to easily demolish the Dutch time of 3:02.02.
"It’s a nice way to finish the competition for sure," said Groves. "For us to be able to put that race together, we know have the confidence, we know we can do that race, we’ve known we can do that race and we finally did it today.
Japan grabbed the bronze at 3:04.06.
It was the third medal at these championships for both Nesbitt and Groves, and the first for Schussler. The trio won silver at last year’s worlds, and Canada now has eight medals at this event overall (two gold, two silver, four bronze).
Canada’s entries into the team pursuit vary during the season and with Nesbitt and Schussler based in Richmond, and Groves based in Calgary, the three of them don’t often get the chance to practise together. But a rowing session last summer in Calgary for 16 members of the national team helped them bond.
"It was actually really fun," said Nesbitt. "The only way you can go fast in rowing is if you’re perfectly in synch. It kind of brought out the perfectionist in some people, you had some people chirping to get in tune, some people just sat there frustrated.
"That was pretty fun once we got over ourselves."
Earlier, Germany’s Jenny Wolf won gold in the women’s 500 metres for the third straight year while South Korea’s Kang-Seok Lee grabbed the men’s crown.
Wolf posted a combined two-run time of one minute 15.750 seconds to beat out Wang Beixing of China’s 1:15.870. San-Hwa Lee of South Korea took bronze in 1:16.390.
"I was a little bit lucky that her second race wasn’t that good," Wolf said of Wang. "I knew I could skate around three-tenths faster than in my first race because I made a big mistake."
Tamara Oudenaarden of St. Albert, Alta., was the top Canadian in 18th at 1:19.390 in her first world championships. Shannon Rempel of Winnipeg was 20th in 1:19.480 while Kim Weger was 22nd in 1:20.250.
"I’ve never been to a single distances championships before so it’s really cool to be here with the Canadian team that’s so strong right now," said Oudenaarden, 21. "I got a feel for what the Olympics are going to feel like and hopefully one day I can to the Olympics, here especially."
Rempel lost a second in her second race because of confusion on the lane crossover with Judith Hesse, as she slowed down to yield to the German.
"That’s a fear a lot for me because my opener isn’t that fast," she said. "Either I come out even or I kind of let them go so I come up even or I kind of let them go and there wasn’t enough time to get over.
"She had the right of way so I just glided."
Lee clocked 1:09.730 to win the men’s 500 over teammate Kyou-Hyuk Lee at 1:09.920 and favourite Yu Fengtong of China at 1:09.970.
Jamie Gregg of Edmonton was eighth in 1:00.370, while Muncef Ouardi of Montreal was 14th in 1:11.260 and Vincent Labrie of Levis, Que., was 17th in 111.590.
"Definitely I could be a lot stronger," Gregg said when asked what he needs to do to take the next step. "If you look at the guys’ legs, they’re freaking huge, so I’ve got to work on that."
American Shani Davis was sixth after the first race in 35.19 but had some issues in the second to post a combined time of 92.220, last among the 22 skaters to finish the race.
For full Vancouver 2010 coverage, click here.