SPEED SKATING Preview: Newly-opened Arena Lodowa welcomes the World Cup

The third of six legs of the ISU Speed Skating World Cup is in the new Arena Lodowa in Tomaszow Mazowiecki (POL), with a large program on tap beginning on Friday. As the season hits the halfway mark, the current standings:

Men’s 500 m:
1. 204 Tatsuya Shinhama (JPN)
2. 174 Havard Holmefjord Lorentzen (NOR)
3. 154 Ryohei Haga (JPN)
4. 153 Viktor Mushtakov (RUS)
5. 152 Pavel Kuliznikov (RUS)

Men’s 1,000 m:
1. 114 Kjeld Nuis (NED)
2. 96 Thomas Krol (NED)
3. 94 Kai Verbij (NED)
4. 86 Havard Holmefjord Lorentzen (NOR)
5. 69 Tae-Yun Kim (KOR)

Men’s 1,500 m:
1. 114 Kjeld Nuis (NED)
2. 102 Patrick Roest (NED)
3. 91 Thomas Krol (NED)
4. 83 Seitaro Ichinohe (JPN)
5. 76 Sverre Lunde Pedersen (NOR)

Men’s 5,000/10,000 m:
1. 108 Patrick Roest (NED)
2. 94 Sverre Lunde Pedersen (NOR)
3. 90 Alexander Rumyantsev (RUS)
4. 87 Bart Swings (BEL)
5. 78 Sergey Trfimov (RUS)

The Dutch trio of Nuis, Krol and Roest will miss this meet in favor of more training, so the races from 1,000 m and up will be wide open.

The women’s standings:

Women’s 500 m:
1. 240 Nao Kodaira (JPN)
2. 216 Vanessa Herzog (AUT)
3. 167 Angelina Golikova (RUS)
4. 166 Brittany Bowe (USA)
5. 164 Olga Fatkulina (RUS)
164 Daria Kachanova (RUS)

Women’s 1,000 m:
1. 108 Vanessa Herzog (AUT)
2. 108 Nao Kodaira (JPN)
3. 97 Brittany Bowe (USA)
4. 94 Miho Takagi (JPN)
5. 83 Ireen Wust (NED)

Women’s 1,500 m:
1. 108 Brittany Bowe (USA)
2. 108 Miho Takagi (JPN)
3. 103 Ireen Wust (NED)
4. 81 Antoinette de Jong (NED)
5. 78 Lotte van Beek (NED)

Women’s 3,000/5,000 m:
1. 102 Martina Sabilkova (CZE)
2. 97 Natalia Voronina (RUS)
3. 92 Isabelle Weidemann (CAN)
4. 89 Esmee Visser (NED)
5. 82 Francesca Lollobrigida (ITA)

Japan’s Kodaira, who won all four 500 m races so far this season, will not be in Poland, so Austria’s Herzog – after four second-place 500 m finishes – has her best chance for a win thus far. Bowe has been outstanding – the only American with a medal – but has her only win of the season in the 1,500 m, so she’ll be looking for more opportunities.

Look for results here.