Exceptional sprinter Jordan Stolz from the USA narrowly missed his next world record at the individual speed skating world championships in Calgary, Canada.
The 19-year-old defending champion won gold again in the 500 meters in 33.69 seconds, only 0.08 seconds above the five-year-old record set by the Russian Pavel Kulischnikov. Just three weeks ago, Stolz replaced Kulischnikov as the world record holder over 1000 meters at the World Cup in Salt Lake City (USA) in 1:05.37 minutes. The Canadian Laurent Debreuil came second in the sprint decision, in which there were no Germans at the start, in 33.95 seconds ahead of the Pole Damian Zurek (34.11).
The German women had previously confirmed their performance in the team pursuit by winning silver at the European Championships in Heerenveen, the Netherlands, at the beginning of January. In the European Championship line-up of Josephine Schlörb (Dresden), Josie Hofmann (Erfurt) and Lea Sophie Scholz (Berlin), the trio from the German Speed Skating and Short Track Association (DESG) ran to sixth place in 2:59.72 minutes second best European team behind world champion Netherlands (2:51.20). Behind them were Canada (2:54.03) in second place and Japan (2:54.89) in bronze, as well as the USA and China.
