Dutch Tuitert wins gold in 1500 metres

Dutch Mark Tuitert surprised at the 1500 meter after winning the gold medal over favourite, American Shani Davis, at the Richmond Oval Saturday night at the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games.

Davis, world record holder at this event, finished 0.53 behind Tuitert’s time at 1:45.57. Norwegian Havard Bokko took bronze with a time of 1:46.13.

“Unbelievable, I can’t believe it,” said Tuitert to CTV. “Everything went right, this is the race of my life.”

Tuitert had a strong start and kept the pace and consistency until the end of his race. He had to wait until the last pair, where Davis raced, to see if he became the new Olympic champion.

The athlete added this gold to a bronze medal from Torino 2006 in the team pursuit competition, and to five more medals from World Championships.

American Davis was expecting to win his second gold at this Olympics, after he won gold in the 1000 metres.

With an impressive technique of a lower position, the 27-year-old finished the last lap totally exhausted and couldn’t have a strong closing. His reaction said everything after he looked at his time and realized that it was not enough to beat the leader.

Canada’s Denny Morrison was the best ranked of Team Canada after he finished ninth. Despite his position, he had a strong sprint that helped him to get closer to the leader, but his legs lost power in the last lap.

Mathieu Giroux skated in the same pair as Italian Olympic champion Enrico Fabris. Pointe-aux-Trembles native tried to increase the speed at the end of the race; however it was not enough and he ended up 14th.

Lucas Makowsky and Kyle Parrott had a disappointing performance finishing 19th and 37th respectively.

About this article

By: Cecilia Olmos
Posted: Feb 21 2010 12:50 am
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Filed under: Winter Games
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