Klassen outclassed

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This article was published 15/02/2010 (5699 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

VANCOUVER — In the case of Winnipeg’s Cindy Klassen, any notion that the 2010 Winter Olympics would be a carbon copy of the speedskater’s unprecedented five-medal performance in Turin were laid to rest in the span of 3,000 metres.

The 30-year-old Klassen faded in the last two laps of the 3,000-metre race Sunday to finish 14th with a time of 4:15.53 — a full 22-plus seconds off her own world record time of 3:53.34.

Clearly, a three-month delay in recovering from double-knee reconstruction surgery last year, which pushed back Klassen’s training schedule, might be too daunting to overcome. She won bronze in the 3,000 metres in both Turin in 2006 and Salt Lake in 2002.

Klassen has struggled to regain her Olympic form to the point where she narrowly qualified for the Canadian team at the trials last December in Calgary after doctors uncovered more damage to the knees than expected.

"I laid it all out there," she said. "It was a tough race. It’s work ice out there and it just kind of got to me at the end. I started off the way I wanted to, but my legs got heavy and I just kind of died at the end."

Indeed, Klassen did start strong and after four laps was posting a second-overall split time. But the six-time Olympic medallist started to seize up over the final 500 metres.

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Her time was exactly 13 seconds behind gold medallist Martina Sablikova of the Czech Republic.

Although still a long shot, Klassen’s best opportunity to medal in an individual race might be next Sunday’s 1,500-metres — a race she won in Turin.

"It was good to get that race under my belt going into the 1,500," she said. "Also, just to feel what the crowd’s going to be like, because it’s pretty emotional out there. Even just warming up before I started my race… the crowd is so supportive of all of us. It’s very exciting.

"I didn’t even know if I was going to qualify for the Olympics, so it’s a very special moment for me."

randy.turner@freepress.mb.ca

Randy Turner
Reporter

Randy Turner spent much of his journalistic career on the road. A lot of roads. Dirt roads, snow-packed roads, U.S. interstates and foreign highways. In other words, he got a lot of kilometres on the odometer, if you know what we mean.

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