Speedskater Christine Nesbitt surprised herself with a first-place performance at a long track World Cup event on Saturday in Kearns, Utah.
The London, Ont., native crossed the finish line in one minute, 52.75 seconds to edge Canadian teammate Kristina Groves (1:54.25) in the women's 1,500 metres.
"Only in the past three weeks has my skating started to really pick up," said Nesbitt, 22. "So I wasn't going in with a lot of confidence and didn't think I could win a gold this soon."
Groves placed second and Italy's Chiara Simionato rounded out the top three (1:54.65). Winnipeg's Cindy Klassen was fourth (1:54.91) while fellow Canadians Shannon Rempel and Brittany Schussler were ninth and 10th, respectively.
Pekka Koskela of Finland broke the world record in the men's 1,000, clocking 1:07.00. That eclipsed the previous standard of 1:07.03 set here in 2005 by American Shani Davis.
Davis went 1:07.18 for the silver while Jeremy Wotherspoon of Red Deer, Alta., won bronze in 1:07.34.
Jeff Kitura of Langley, B.C., was 19th, Francois Olivier-Roberge of St-Nicolas, Que., 24th while Denny Morrison of Fort St. John, B.C., was disqualified for an illegal crossover.
Jamie Gregg of Edmonton was fourth in the B Group race.
Enrico Fabris of Italy broke the world record in the men's 5,000, finishing in 6:07.40. Arne Dankers of Calgary was fifth in 6:17.71, Justin Warsylewicz of Regina 15th, Steven Elm of Red Deer 22nd and Adam Sadlier of Norwood, Ont., 28th.
Jenny Wolf won the women's 500 in 37.22. Rempel was 18th and Kim Weger of Regina 22nd. Danielle Wotherspoon of Red Deer was sixth in the B group race.
With files from the Canadian PressRelated
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