Oscar Mathisen
Speedskating - Oscar Diary

A 100 years ago today, two small towns in Idaho were buried under the snow. But in Viborg the snow no longer was the problem. Overnight it had changed to rain, and the championship track had been transformed from skating track to swimming pool. The track was laid in the harbour, and the tall heaps of snow on all sides gave the water nowhere to escape. In one curve the level was more than ankle high.

Retreat, not from Moscow, but from Wiborg, drawing by Endre Vik in “Vikingen”, based on Adolph Northen’s original, from “Mitt Livs Løp”Many spectators still had turned up to watch this world event, and the organisers had the choice of either cancelling the meet and pay back the ticket money, or let it go on under the present circumstances. No difficult choice to make. Soon the 1500m was under way in parodical style. No time under 3 minutes was registered, and the world record holder had no chance in his best distance. The winner was the lightweight Johansen, with the almost equally lightweight Strunnikov in 2nd place.

1500m:

1.Magnus Johansen      3.03,4
2.Nikolaj Strunnikov   3.05,0
3.Martin Sæterhaug     3.06,2
4.Björn Damstén        3.07,0 pb
5.Oscar Mathisen       3.08,8
6.Väinö Wickström      3.11,2
7.Johan Vikander       3.11,6
8.Nikolaj Rundjaltsev  3.15,0 pb
9.Birger Carlssom      3.20,0
10.Antti Wiklund       3.20,8
11.Jevgenij Burnov     3.21,0
12.Alexander Bäckström 3.23,0
13.Ejnar Sørensen      3.25,0
14.Thomas Bohrer       3.26,4
15.Grigorij Kiselev    3.26,6
16.T Hagman            3.30,0 pb
17.Franz F Wathén      3.30,4
Stepan Nekrasov f, dnf

Overall:

1.Strunnikov   5
2.Mathisen     9
3.Johansen    12,5
4.Sæterhaug   13,5
5.Vikander and
Damstén       18
7.Wickström   19
8.Wiklund     27
9.Rundjaltsev 30
10.Bohrer     31
11.Carlsson   32
12.Burnov     33,5
13.Wathén     37
14.Bäckström  40
15.Sørensen   40,5
16.Kiselev    45,5
17.Hagman     47,5

Never before or since has speedskating sunk as low as in the 10000m at this championship. Of the 14 bothering to start, 5 gave up along the way. Martin Sæterhaug with 28.05,4 had the poorest time of those who completed the distance. Imagine enduring this stuff for close to half an hour! But you need big bullets for a Trønder, as we all know. Again Johansen won the distance, finishing more than two minutes ahead of Oscar, and nearly 40 seconds ahead of the Russian, who won the championship accordingly. It could have been Johansen’s but for those 1.6 seconds in the 5000m yesterday.

10000m:

1.Johansen    24.04,0
2.Strunnikov  24.42,8
3.Burnov      24.59,8
4.Wickström   25.19,2
5.Nekrasov    25.35,4 pb
6.Damstén     26.08,2 pb
7.Mathisen    26.09,6
8.Bohrer      26.57,8
9.Sæterhaug   28.05,4
Rundjaltsev, Carlsson, Wathén, Kiselev og Hagman dnf

Overall:

1.Strunnikov  7
2.Johansen   11
3.Mathisen   15
4.Sæterhaug  19
5.Wickström  20 (39.32,0)
6.Damstén    20 (40.26,2)
7.Burnov     25
8.Bohrer     28

Of the participants this weekend, Rundjaltsev, Nekrasov and Hagman (relation to Larry?) have no known former results, and Damstén only has results in the 500 and 5000 meters. They probably do have better results than the ones I have marked as pbs here, but what else can I do when they aren’t known? Damstén fulfilled his first combination, and enters Adelskalenderen in 214th place.

Again the Finns are statists, though, and they seem to experience some kind of crisis. From 1909 as well as 1910 there are almost no known inland results before they start appearing internationally, and this latter year they only held a rather hurried national championship the last two days before the European one. Seems somewhat disorganised, really.