Speed skating at the 2006 Winter Olympics – Men's team pursuit

The men's team pursuit competition at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, began on 15 February at Oval Lingotto. The team pursuit consisted of a qualifying round, then a series of elimination races, with the winners of the elimination races progressing to the next round of the knockout phase.

Each race was skated by two teams of three skaters, over a distance of eight 400 metre laps (3200 metres total). The three skaters of a team were allowed to change order at any time, but the team's final time was always recorded when the third skater crossed the finishing line. If two teams started simultaneously on opposite sides of the track, and if one team managed to overtake the other before the full distance, the overtaking team was immediately declared the winner.

Records Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.

Date Event Team Time OR WR 15 February Heat 1 Stefan HeythausenRobert LehmannTobias Schneider 3:49.59 OR 15 February Heat 3 Rintje RitsmaMark TuitertCarl Verheijen 3:48.02 OR 15 February Heat 4 Arne DankersSteven ElmDenny Morrison 3:47.37 OR 15 February Quarterfinals Sven KramerCarl VerheijenErben Wennemars 3:44.65 OR 15 February Quarterfinals Matteo AnesiEnrico FabrisIppolito Sanfratello 3:43.64 OR

Results

Teams had to select three skaters for each round of the team pursuit, but all skaters who participated in at least one round earned a medal, and are mentioned in the overall results below.

Rank Team Matteo Anesi Stefano DonagrandiEnrico FabrisIppolito Sanfratello Arne DankersSteven ElmDenny MorrisonJason ParkerJustin Warsylewicz Sven Kramer Rintje RitsmaMark TuitertCarl Verheijen Erben Wennemars 4 Håvard Bøkko Eskil ErvikMikael Flygind LarsenØystein GrødumLasse Sætre 5 Artyom DetyshevAlexandr KibalkoYevgeny LalenkovDmitry ShepelIvan Skobrev 6 K. C. Boutiette Chad HedrickCharles Ryan Leveille CoxClay Mull Derek Parra 7 Joerg Dallmann Stefan HeythausenRobert LehmannTobias Schneider 8 Kesato MiyazakiTeruhiro SugimoriTakahiro Ushiyama

Heats

Rank Team Time Notes 1 Arne DankersSteven ElmDenny Morrison 3:47.37 2 Stefano DonagrandiEnrico FabrisIppolito Sanfratello 3:47.79 3 Rintje RitsmaMark TuitertCarl Verheijen 3:48.02 4 Eskil ErvikØystein GrødumLasse Sætre 3:49.55 5 Stefan HeythausenRobert LehmannTobias Schneider 3:49.59 6 Artyom DetyshevAlexandr KibalkoIvan Skobrev 3:49.75 7 Charles Ryan Leveille CoxClay Mull Derek Parra 3:51.32 8 Kesato MiyazakiTeruhiro SugimoriTakahiro Ushiyama 4:03.83

Knockout round

Quarterfinals

Seed Team Time Notes 1 Denny MorrisonJason ParkerJustin Warsylewicz 3:52.01 Q 8 Kesato MiyazakiTeruhiro SugimoriTakahiro Ushiyama 3:53.88 Seed Team Time Notes 4 Håvard BøkkoEskil ErvikMikael Flygind Larsen 3:47.81 Q 5 Jörg DallmannStefan HeythausenTobias Schneider 3:49.68

Seed Team Time Notes 2 Matteo AnesiEnrico FabrisIppolito Sanfratello 3:43.64 Q 7 K. C. BoutietteChad HedrickCharles Ryan Leveille Cox 3:44.11 Seed Team Time Notes 3 Sven KramerCarl VerheijenErben Wennemars 3:44.65 Q 6 Yevgeny LalenkovDmitry ShepelIvan Skobrev 3:47.49

Semifinals

The Italian men's team was well behind the Dutch team in their semi-final heat, and although they were gaining it was late in the race and the Dutch seemed en route to a victory. However, Dutch skater Sven Kramer fell on a corner, taking his team's chances down with him and allowing Italy to go through to the gold medal race.

Seed Team Time Notes 1 Arne DankersDenny MorrisonJustin Warsylewicz 3:44.91 Q 4 Håvard BøkkoEskil ErvikØystein Grødum 3:47.81

Seed Team Time Notes 2 Matteo AnesiEnrico FabrisIppolito Sanfratello Overtook Q 3 Sven KramerCarl VerheijenErben Wennemars Overtaken

Finals

Four finals determined the final finishing order, with the two semifinal winners meeting for gold, and the two semifinal losers racing for bronze. To determine places five-through-eight, the four quarterfinal losers were ranked by their time in the quarterfinal race, with the fastest loser matched up against the second-fastest for fifth, and the two slowest for seventh.

Final A (gold medal)

Seed Team Time Notes 1 Arne DankersSteven ElmJustin Warsylewicz 3:47.28 2 Matteo AnesiEnrico FabrisIppolito Sanfratello 3:44.46

Final B (bronze medal)

Seed Team Time Notes 3 Sven KramerMark TuitertCarl Verheijen 3:44.53 4 Håvard BøkkoEskil ErvikMikael Flygind Larsen 3:45.96

Final C (5th place)

Seed Team Time Notes 6 Aleksandr KibalkoDmitry ShepelIvan Skobrev 3:46.91 7 K. C. BoutietteCharles Ryan Leveille CoxClay Mull 3:49.73

Final D (7th place)

Seed Team Time Notes 5 Stefan HeythausenRobert LehmannTobias Schneider 3:48.28 8 Kesato MiyazakiTeruhiro SugimoriTakahiro Ushiyama 3:50.37

References