Friday November 12th 2021
“Delivered age-appropriate”
Pechstein is last and is still allowed to cheer
Claudia Pechstein is 49 years old and on a historic Olympic mission. Nationally it outclasses the competition, but internationally it is lagging behind. Far behind. Nevertheless, you manage to take a step towards the Olympics. The Dutch women are to blame.
Olympic champion Claudia Pechstein started the Olympic winter internationally with a disappointment. At the start of the Speed Skating World Cup, the 49-year-old only finished 16th and last over 3000 meters in Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Poland. With her time of 4: 19.073 minutes she was more than seven seconds slower than when she won the title at the German championships in Inzell two weeks earlier. The winner was Irene Schouten from the Netherlands with a track record of 4: 04.009 minutes.
“I delivered age-appropriate today. On the way to the Olympic Games that is a very bad result,” said Claudia Pechstein after the race, but also made it clear: “Nevertheless, I managed half the Olympic standard.” The “perpetual motion machine”, as the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” Pechstein called it, would be the first woman to take part in the winter games for the eighth time. So far this has only been achieved by the Japanese ski jumper Noriaki Kasai.
“In Holland I would be a pensioner”
According to the nomination criteria, she must be in the top eight once or twice in the top 15. Because four Dutch women were placed in front of her, but only three are rated, she achieved the criterion. “In Holland I would have been a pensioner for 15 years,” said Pechstein with a smile during the German championships.
At the same time, Claudia Pechstein missed the chance to qualify directly for the Olympic Games in Beijing over 5000 meters. At the World Cup in Stavanger, Norway next weekend, eight of the twelve Olympic starting places will be awarded over this distance. Stavanger hosts the only World Cup race of the season over the longest Olympic women’s route. For a start in the A group in Norway, the six-time world champion in Poland should have done better than twelfth place.
Patrick Beckert did better than the Berliner. The German champion finished tenth over 5000 meters in 6: 27.409 minutes. The Erfurt native is thus qualified for the only World Cup race of the season over 10,000 meters in Stavanger and can hope for a direct starting position over the 25 laps in Beijing. The winner was Nils van der Poel from Sweden with a track record of 6: 15.562 minutes.