Bart Swings could not have dreamed of a better start to the World Speed Skating Championships on the famous Thialf track in Heerenveen. The Louvanist has, in fact, won the bronze medal in the 5,000 m, the first of the four events in which he is involved.
Olympic mass-start champion in February, in Beijing, Bart is in the Netherlands to win the only title missing from his record, that of world champion in his favorite discipline, the mass-start. In the meantime, opposed to the Dutchman Patrick Roest in the ninth of ten series of the 5,000m, our compatriot won a formidable bronze medal.
Gold went to his opponent of the day, Patrick Roest, who won in 6.08.94, ahead of the Italian Davide Ghiotto, at 2.18, while Bart Swings completed the distance in 6.13.06, 4.12 from new world champion. The continuation for Swings will be the semi-finals of the mass-start, Saturday (1:36 p.m. or 1:52 p.m.), the final being scheduled for 4:58 p.m. Finally, if all goes well, on Sunday, the Louvanist will still line up for 1,500 m (12:45 p.m.) and 10,000 m (2:46 p.m.).
A particularly rich program…
Bart Swings had already won bronze in mass-start two years ago, on the same track in Heerenveen, before becoming Olympic champion last year, in Beijing.
At the beginning of January, in Hamar, Bart had won the bronze at the Euro in the “allround” event, a discipline of four races in two days (500 m and 5,000 m, Saturday; 1,500 m and 10,000 m, Sunday) .
