Well, the women's 10km individual-start skating race at Sapporo turned out just the way it was supposed to: Katerina Neumannova (Czech Republic) crushed the rest of the field. She started last, led from wire to wire, and won by 26 seconds. Olga Savialova (Russia) and Kristin Størmer Steira (Norway), who bracketed Neumannova's second place in the women's pursuit earlier this week, were her main competition in the 10km. Savialova raced intelligently, accelerating over the two-lap race to climb from fifth to third to second at the finish. On the other hand, Steira nearly blew up in her attempt to set fast splits, dropping from second at five km and third at 8.3 km to fourth at the finish, five seconds from bronze. Italian Arianna Follis, a rapidly improving racer, showed equal parts maturity and ability by steadily increasing her pace and rising from eleventh to fourth and then into third at the finish, earning her first-ever World Championship medal. Neumannova has already said that this championships and this season are her last, but she is going out on top.
Neumannova had been the favorite to win the 10km at Worlds since the season started, but the winner of the men's 15km, to be run on Wednesday. is far harder to predict, with a gigantic 121-man field (taking a full hour to start!) and a dozen or more possible winners. The three podium spots are unlikely to be separated by more than a few seconds. My picks (repeated from yesterday's post):