11 March 2011 – INZELL, GERMANY
Shani Davis’ skated 1000 meters of redemption at the World Single Distance Championship here today.
All eyes were on the two-time Olympic Champion as he covered the distance in 1:08.45, nearly a quarter second ahead of a pair of Dutch skaters.
The victory marked Shani’s record third World title at 1000m, adding to his back-to-back wins at the 2007 and 2008 Championships.
Despite a major slip on one corner and an outer-lane finish with 2011 World Sprint Champion Kyou-Hyuk Lee ahead at 600m, Shani poured his heart into the final 400 meters and left the Korean – and the field – in his wake.
Shani’s resume continues to astound: the middle distance king now has six individual distance World Championship wins. Only Dutch long distance legend Gianni Romme has more (7).
In the 1500m World Championship a day earlier, Shani skated to a Silver medal in 1:45.09, just .05 behind Norwegian Havard Bokko, who found a measure of redemption himself after numerous 2nd and 3rd place finishes over the past few seasons. Shani won the 1500m World Championship in 2004, 2007 and 2009.
Shani wraps up the World Championships and the 2010-2011 season by joining his teammates in the Team Pursuit event on Sunday, where the U.S. threesome will be a strong contender for its first ever World Championship gold.
[Photo by Martin De Jong |more photos in the Photo Gallery]
