1897
This year, 11 ISU members have known times from the ISU distances—the same ones as last year plus one: AUT, BOH, CAN, FIN, GER, GBR, HUN, NED, NOR, RUS, SWE. Thus we need a preliminary round of 3 matches. The semi-finalists from last year, FIN, GER, NED and NOR are exempt from the preliminary round. The draw: BOH-RUS, HUN-GBR, AUT-CAN. The matches proceed as follows:Bohemia-Russia 2-3
Hungary-Britain 2-3
Austria-Canada 0-4, thus poor results for the empire.
The first round proper then consists of CAN, FIN, GER, GBR, NED, NOR, RUS and SWE. The finalists from last year, GER and NOR, are seeded and cannot be drawn against each other. The draw is as follows: GER-FIN, SWE-GBR, CAN-NED, NOR-RUS. Results of the matches:
Germany-Finland 7-0
Sweden-Britain 4-0
Canada-Netherlands 4-0
Norway-Russia 5-1
Semi-final draw: SWE-NOR, GER-CAN. Matches:
Sweden-Norway 1-5
Germany-Canada 7-0
Bronze final: Sweden-Canada 1.5-2.5
FINAL: Norway-Germany
- - 127,8 (0-1) 46,6 - 47,8 (1-1) 1.46,4 - 1.54,0 (2-1) 2.26,4 - 2.31,6 (3-1) 7.30,0 - 7.15,4 (3-2) 9.03,4 - 9.05,0 (4-2) 20.17,2 - 19.22,8 (4-3)
Final result 4-3, a pretty close call
Statistics:
NOR GOLD 4x NED GOLD 1895 GER Silver 2x SWE Silver 1893 BOH bronze 1895 CAN bronze 1897 RUS 4th 2x USA 4th 1895 FIN 4th 1896 HUN QF 3x GBR QF 2x DEN QF 1893 AUT QF 1895 SWI QF 1895