Wotherspoon barely edges Davis

KEARNS — In a race where only a few hundredths of a second can mean the difference between setting a world record and being nowhere near the podium, it wouldn't be hard to imagine American Shani Davis kicking himself over a slow start or a minor thing like pushing his front skate a few inches ahead as he lunged for the line.

Especially not after he missed breaking the world record in the men's 1,000-meter finale at the World Cup speedskating races at the Utah Olympic Oval on Sunday afternoon.

Davis narrowly lost a sprint to the finish line with Jeremy Wotherspoon, who tripped the clock at 1:07.03 — just a few millimeters ahead of Davis, who was given a 1:07.04 time and finished second.

It was the start, and not the final sprint, that probably cost Davis an opportunity to reclaim the world record he lost just a day earlier on the same ice to Finland's Pekka Koskela. Davis' first split time was a "sluggish" 16.99 — 0.21 seconds slower than the pace he used to set the record in 2005.

Being just a hair faster out of the shoot might have made all the difference in the world.

"I'll take it," Davis said, noting he felt his finish was his weakness in this particular race. "Hopefully by next week ... I'll go back to Calgary, my home ice, and give it my best effort."

Regardless of it being a slow start of a less-than-perfect sprint to the end, Davis said he is thrilled to have a pair of second-place finishes in the young World Cup season.

"Being second, by so little, it gives me extra motivation," he said. "Hopefully I can go up from where I'm at."

Korea's Kyou-Hyuk Lee was third at 1:07.07. Kip Carpenter was the second fastest American at 1:08.34, good enough for 13th.

Earlier in the day, Canada's Wotherspoon didn't break the 500 world record he set just two days earlier. He clocked 34.14 to win the second heat of the event. Combining that time with his 34.03 from Friday gives Wotherspoon a world record in 2x500, cementing him as the fastest human on ice.

Korea's Kang-Seok Lee was the previous record holder in both the 500 and 2x500 and his Sunday afternoon time of 34.25 would have been good enough to break his old record had Wotherspoon not been around.

China's Yu Fengtong was third Sunday, crossing the line at 34.49.