VANCOUVER—Shani Davis, 27, seized the gold with a time of 1:08.94 in the men’s 1,000-meter speed skating event at the Richmond Olympic Oval on Wednesday.
South Korea’s Mo Tae-Bum came in second place at 1:09.12 and American Chad Hedrick, who skated in pair with Mo, came in third at 1:09.32.
Thirty-eight athletes strived for their best at the 1,000-meter race.
At Torino 2006, Davis received a gold medal in the same competition. He will also compete at men’s 1,500m on Saturday.
Starting with Canada’s Jeremy Wotherspoon (11th pairing), who surprised the crowd with a time of 1:10.35, several speed skaters topped the chart briefly until Davis seized it at last.
Before Davis skated, Mo topped the chart. Had Mo won, he would have had his second gold medal at Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games. He won the men’s 500-meter speed skating on Monday.
At the start of the seventh pairing, Russian Dmitry Lobkov took off earlier than his partner, Japan’s Keiichiro Nagashima. Upon mistaking a noise as the firing of the start gun, Lobkov did not stop until he sprinted out almost 400 meters, leaving Nagashima looking on.
Confusion was hanging for a few minutes in the air, until Lobkov and Nagashima were announced to skate as the 10th pair, since a restart would be unfair for the exhausted Lobkov.
As everything was about to be in order again, the electric timer malfunctioned. The competition was postponed for a few more minutes while the eighth pair of skaters got themselves ready.
This is the second technical incident at the Oval in addition to the problems with the ice resurfacing machines on Monday.
South Korea’s Mo Tae-Bum came in second place at 1:09.12 and American Chad Hedrick, who skated in pair with Mo, came in third at 1:09.32.
Thirty-eight athletes strived for their best at the 1,000-meter race.
At Torino 2006, Davis received a gold medal in the same competition. He will also compete at men’s 1,500m on Saturday.
Starting with Canada’s Jeremy Wotherspoon (11th pairing), who surprised the crowd with a time of 1:10.35, several speed skaters topped the chart briefly until Davis seized it at last.
Before Davis skated, Mo topped the chart. Had Mo won, he would have had his second gold medal at Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games. He won the men’s 500-meter speed skating on Monday.
At the start of the seventh pairing, Russian Dmitry Lobkov took off earlier than his partner, Japan’s Keiichiro Nagashima. Upon mistaking a noise as the firing of the start gun, Lobkov did not stop until he sprinted out almost 400 meters, leaving Nagashima looking on.
Confusion was hanging for a few minutes in the air, until Lobkov and Nagashima were announced to skate as the 10th pair, since a restart would be unfair for the exhausted Lobkov.
As everything was about to be in order again, the electric timer malfunctioned. The competition was postponed for a few more minutes while the eighth pair of skaters got themselves ready.
This is the second technical incident at the Oval in addition to the problems with the ice resurfacing machines on Monday.
