Witty Sharp In Speedskating Win

Olympian Chris Witty won her first race at 1,000 meters Saturday, capturing the gold medal in the season’s first stop on the World Cup speedskating circuit at Berlin, Germany.

Witty, 20, of West Allis, Wisc., was timed in 1 minute, 21.66 seconds for the 1,000, a distance that had been dominated by retired Olympian Bonnie Blair.

Other American finishers in Group Two of the 1,000 were Moira D’Andrea of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., eighth in 1:24.78, and Tama Sundstrom of Glen Ellyn, Ill., 11th in 1:25.35.

In the men’s 1,500-meter race, Martin Hersman of the Netherlands finished first in 1:54.25. KC Boutiette of Tacoma, Wash., finished at 1:56.37 to place ninth.

American Michelle Kwan gained her third victory in three meets, winning both the short and the long programs at the Nations Cup figure skating competition at Gelsenkirchen, Germany.

Maria Butirskaia of Russia finished second. U.S. champion Nicole Bobek moved up from fifth to third in the final free routine, worth two-thirds of the final score.

Wolfgang Hoppe drove Germany’s No. 1 sled to a narrow victory over countryman Dirk Wiese’s sled in the opening World Cup four-man bobsled competition at Lillehammer, Norway.

Hoppe, riding with Rene Hanneman, Ulf Hielscher and Sven Peter, was timed in 1 minute, 44.37 seconds, .01 second ahead of Wiese, who had Michael Lickmeier, Christioph Bartsch and Wolfgang Haupt with him in Germany III. They were timed in 1:44.38.

American driver Brian Shimer strained a groin muscle on the first run down the 1,400-meter track. Riding with Randy Jones, Jason Dorsey and Robert Olesen, Shimer’s sled finished 15th in 1:45.60

The No. 2 U.S. sled of Jim Herberich, James Arcilesi, Chip Holston and Andrew Tucker was 24th in 1:46.20 and the No. 3 U.S. sled of Tuffield Latour, Ty Roach, Mike Lewis and John Kasper was 29th in 1:46.75.