There is no faster German speed skater. At the World Cup in Salt Lake City, 18-year-old Finn Sonnekalb set two records and also finished on the podium. For him, this also impacts the Olympics in February – and gives him greater hope.
Speed skater Finn Sonnekalb put an exclamation mark on the start of the Olympic season with his second German record and thus continues to cause a stir among the world elite. At the World Cup in Salt Lake City, the 18-year-old from Erfurt broke the previous record by 2.4 seconds over 1,500 meters in 1:41.33 minutes.
Hendrik Dombek (Munich) set the previous record almost ten months ago with 1:43.73 minutes in Calgary. On the speedway in Salt Lake City, Sonnekalb is now three and a half seconds shy of Inzell’s old record (1:44.99) a month ago.
The world association paid Sonnekalb a world record bonus twice
With his German record, Sonnekalb finished third on Olympic ice at the 2002 Games. Only US prodigy Jordan Stolz, who clocked 1:40.48 minutes, missed the world record set by Dutch runner Kjeld Nuis in 2019 by just 0.31 seconds, and China’s Ning Zhongyan (1:41.02) was faster. Berlin’s Peter Adeberg was the last German to win a World Cup 1500 m race in Inzell in March 1993.
Sonnekalb has already set a national record on the first day of the World Cup. In the 1000 meters, the three-time world junior champion and Youth Olympic Games winner improved German Joel Dufter’s record from 2019 by 0.32 seconds to 1:06.48 minutes. He finished fifth in this race. This time was later recognized by the world association as a junior world record, and Sonnekalb received a $3,000 bonus for each of the two records.
The Erfurt native has twice met the national standard for the Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo next February in the first World Cup of the season. Sonnekalb is one of the greatest hopes in German speed skating. He recently became German champion in the 1000 and 1500 m. Middle distance is considered his parade path, as he demonstrated at the start of the World Cup.
pk/dpa
