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Almost everything about Denny Morrison's preparation felt wrong, but the Canadian speed skater set a world record in the 1,500 metres Friday.The 22-year-old from Fort. St. John, B.C., did it with a time of one minute 41.01 seconds at the ING Finale at the Olympic Oval. The previous mark was 1:42.32, shared by Shani Davis of the U.S. and Erban Wennemars of the Netherlands,
Morrison won the 1,500 at the world single distance championship Sunday in Nagano, Japan, and returned to Calgary on Monday afternoon. He was severely jet-lagged heading into Friday's race.
"Considering how tired I was, it was one hell of a race," Morrison said.
Coming a week after the pinnacle of the speedskating season, the ING Finale at the Oval is a more relaxed event for national team skaters. Morrison's sports psychologist, massage therapist and physiotherapist were not with him.
Morrison initially though he was starting on the outside lane and mentally rehearsed the race that way Thursday night. He had to re-visualize the race an hour before it started when he discovered he started on the inside lane.
"That's something I wasn't very good at two years ago, being resilient," Morrison said. "Everything had to be perfect for me or I didn't think I would have a good race. But I had the confidence today and that helped a lot.
"In terms of preparation it was a lot different for me, but as soon as I was on the starting line, everything was back to normal and away I went."
Morrison says he earned the record on his final lap, which was a personal best by about .8 seconds.
"I love training and racing in Calgary," he said. "I think it's the fastest ice in the world for me. All my personal bests are here."
Morrison, who started speedskating at age three, has been a member of Canada's speed skating team for four years. He helped Canada win an Olympic silver medal in the team pursuit in 2006.
In addition to winning his first world title this season, he was second in the overall World Cup standings in the 1,000 metres and won the bronze medal in that distance at the world championships.
"I had some high expectations going into the first two World Cups of this season which were in Calgary and Salt Lake City, which both have fast ice, and I never had the race of my life there," he said. "It was early in the season, but I think I made up for it today."
Morrison will take a break from training at the Oval, but when he's back on the ice, his 1,500-metre time will be posted on the wall beside the track among the other world records. There will be a Maple Leaf beside his time.
"That's pretty cool," Morrison said. "The last three years I've been looking up Shani Davis's record or Chad Hedrick's record and looking at that time and going 'How am I going to beat that?'
"Now it's my time and it's like 'How am I going to defend that?' and that'll push me that one extra step."
Source : Canadianpress
