2007 European Speed Skating Championships

The 2007 European Speed Skating Championships were held on the outdoor artificial ice track Ritten Kunsteisbahn in Collalbo, Italy. The Championships were three-day allround events, with the skaters completing four distances before the final championship standings are determined based on the samalog system.

Live broadcasts from the Championships were shown on Nederland 1, [nl icon [http://www.knsb.nl/live-2007/ek/tijdschema.asp KNSB.nl | EK Allround 2007 Collalbo] , from KNSB, retrieved 12 January 2007] NRK [no icon [http://nrk.no/programmer/sider/_/emneside/sport.html Sport - NRK] , retrieved 12 January 2007] and Rai Tre/Rai Sport Sat, [it icon [http://www.rai.it/guidatv/0,,01-13-2007%5EPaltv,00.html Guida TV] , from rai.it, it icon [http://velocita.fisg.it/upload_SEVE/Comunicato%20Stampa%20nr.6%20-%20Europei%20Pattinaggio%20di%20Velocit%E0%202007.PDF Communication from FISG] , retrieved 11 January 2006] with highlights on Das Erste.

The two champions were both below 21 years of age; Sven Kramer won his first European gold medal, two years after winning silver in Thialf, while Czech Martina Sáblíková won the women's championship to become the first Czech to medal at a European championship, and also the youngest European women's champion. Kramer is the youngest European Champion since 1992.

Rules

All skaters were allowed to skate the first three distances; 12 skaters took part on the fourth distance. These were qualified by taking the standings on the longest of the first three distances, as well as the samalog standings after three distances, and comparing these lists as follows:

# Skaters among the top 12 on both lists were qualified.
# To make up a total of 12, skaters were then added in order of their best rank on either list. Samalog standings take precedence over longest-distance standings in the event of a tie.

Final standings

;Men [ [http://www.knsb.nl/live-2007/ek/deelnemers/ECh2007-Competitorslist-Men_NL.pdf List of Competitors Men] , from KNSB]

The top six skaters from the 2006 Championships were all present.

; 500 m women

Abramova, Lobysheva, Pechstein and Wójcicka all finished in the same order as in Hamar last year, with Abramova gaining a few hundredths of a second. However, Wüst gains over 1.2 seconds on those three compared to last year's performance, where she finished 0.79 500 m-seconds behind Pechstein in the overall standings. Groenewold finishes 0.77 seconds behind Pechstein, gaining 0.13 on 2006.

; 1500 m men

In the final pair, Kramer bettered his personal best by nearly two seconds, thus advancing to third place on the Adelskalender. The outdoor world best mark was lowered by nearly three seconds by Fabris, who pipped Kramer to the line in the final pair, but remains 0.72 seconds behind before the final distance tomorrow, where Kramer was world record holder.

; 10,000 m men

The outdoor world best mark was lowered twice during the race; first by Enrico Fabris in the fifth pair, who bettered the old record by four seconds on his way to leading the distance. Sven Kramer was thus required to skate 13:22.21 to win the championship; he kept well ahead of that, even skating the last two laps in times below 30 seconds, much faster than any other lap of the race. Verheijen also managed to beat Bøkko by 0.455 points (9.10 10,000 m-seconds) to take the bronze medal.

References and notes