Canada's Morrison wins speedskating silver
Last Updated: Friday, March 12, 2010 | 6:09 PM ET
The Canadian Press
Canadian Denny Morrison found little joy in winning 1,500-metre silver Friday at the long-track speedskating World Cup final.
Instead, he just kept asking himself where that type of performance was two weeks ago, when he needed it at the Vancouver Olympics.
"The result is just bittersweet in general," said Morrison. "I was almost expecting to not be on the podium, and then I'm on the podium, and it's bittersweet, because it's the first 1,500 since the Olympics, and two weeks after the Olympics I place seven places higher and get a silver.
"It's just almost frustrating, it's almost like I'd prefer not to be medalling now."
Still lamenting his ninth-place finish at the Vancouver Games, the native of Fort St. John, B.C., posted his best finish at the distance this season with a time of one minute 46.12 seconds. He had two third-place finishes earlier in the campaign.
"It was just almost strange in the race," he said. "I was just so relaxed in the straightaways and building in the corners and doing what I usually do. In the Olympic races, I think I almost just wanted it too much, and I wanted to attack every single part of the race, and it just left me inefficient."
American Shani Davis won the race in 1:45.20, his fifth victory in six World Cup outings in the 1,500. He long ago clinched the overall title and finished 235 points ahead of Norway's Havard Bokko and 292 up on Morrison.
Davis, however, finished second at the Olympics to Mark Tuitert, who was six-hundredths of a second back of bronze medallist and fellow Dutchman Kjeld Nuis on Friday. Lucas Makowsky of Regina was ninth while Mathieu Giroux of Montreal was 15th.
Morrison's tough Olympics — he was 13th in the 1,000 — left him publicly questioning his training program and the decision to bar Davis from his training group, comments he later apologized for.
He got his head straight and joined with Makowsky and Giroux to win team pursuit gold at the Games, and found adjusting his mindset helped.
"There was a lot of pressure at the Games, for sure I felt that during my 1,500 and after my 1,500 it was sinking in big time," said Morrison. "Going into the team pursuit I sort of had a don't care attitude and it worked out well."
Groves narrowly misses podium
Morrison's medal was the only one for Canada on the opening day of the season's last World Cup event, although Kristina Groves just missed a claiming second.
The Ottawa native, the Olympic bronze medallist at the distance, was fourth in the women's 3,000 in 4:08.17, just a bit behind German Stephanie Beckert's 4:07.57 for bronze.
Olympic champion Martina Sablikova of the Czech Republic won again in 4:06.25 while German Daniela Anschutz Thoms was second in 4:06.54.
"It's a pretty common result for me in this race," said Groves. "I didn't have a really strong fight at the end but there were certainly some good parts."
Brittany Schussler was 10th while fellow Winnipegger Cindy Klassen was 13th.
The victory clinched the overall title for Sablikova with 610 points, 75 more than Beckert. Groves was fourth with 380.
Jamie Gregg of Edmonton was the top Canadian in the men's 500, finishing seventh in 35.43 seconds, while Kyle Parrott of St. Albert, Alta., was 14th in 36.18.
American Tucker Fredricks took the World Cup overall lead by finishing second in a time of 35.01. That gave him 698 points, enough to leap past Finland's Mika Poutala, who was eighth.
Jan Smeekens won Friday's race in 34.99 and moved into third place overall, while fellow Dutchman Ronald Mulder grabbed bronze in 35.24.
The men and the women race another 500 Saturday although the women's standings were settled long ago.
Germany's Jenny Wolf won the women's race for the ninth time in 11 World Cup outings in a time of 38.18, and owns an insurmountable 430 point lead over China's Wang Beixing, who isn't at the event.
Margot Boer was second in 38.22 while another Dutchwoman, Annette Gerritsen, was third in 38.67.
No Canadian women skated in the 500.
