Canada's Christine Nesbitt skates in the women's 1000-metre event at the Essent ISU Speed Skating World Cup in Astana on Sunday.SHAMIL ZHUMATOV
Canadian long-track speedskater Christine Nesbitt has capped an impressive weekend with her second World Cup gold medal in as many days.
Nesbitt finished first in the 1,000 metres Sunday in one minute 14.82 seconds. Thijsje Oenema won silver in 1:16.120 and Margot Boer, also of the Netherlands, took bronze in 1:16.127.
Nesbitt, who won gold Saturday in the 1,500, said a strong opening lap was a key factor.
"I think that probably really helped," she said. "I was just so excited to see something so fast for me. Skating under 1:15 anywhere outside of North America is really good. So I'm really, really happy with it."
Winnipeg's Shannon Rempel was 19th.
Nesbitt, a London, Ont., native, has won three individual gold medals this season. She said she's been tinkering with her style of late.
"I can be pretty inefficient sometimes," Nesbitt said. "Wasting a lot of energy swinging two arms, especially at certain points in the race. I'm trying to be more compact. A lot of skaters swing one arm for at least one lap of the race so I'm testing that out.
"So far it seems pretty good for me."
She leads the overall World Cup standings in the discipline with 200 points, 50 more than Boer.
It was a 1-2 Dutch finish in the men's 1,000. Stefan Groothuis won gold in 1:08.85 and teammate Kjeld Nuis was right behind in 1:08.92. South Korea's Mo Tae-bum was third in 1:09.29.
Denny Morrison of Fort St. John, B.C., was the top Canadian. He finished fifth in 1:09.37.
Edmonton's Jamie Gregg was 15th.
Seung-Hoon Lee of South Korea and Mariska Huisman of the Netherlands won gold in the first-ever World Cup mass start races.
The South Korean finished the 20-lap men's race in 9:40.51. American Jonathan Kuck won silver in 9:40.67 and Hyung-Joon Joo of South Korea took bronze in 9:40.81.
Toronto's Jordan Belchos was 14th.
Huisman finished the 15-lap women's race in 7:26.53. Claudia Pechstein of Germany won silver in 7:26.61 and Bo-Reum Kim of South Korea won bronze in 7:26.85.
Ottawa's Ivanie Blondin was seventh.