LeMay Doan on track for speedskating gold

Defending champion Catriona LeMay Doan broke the Olympic record in the opening race of the women's 500 metres on Wednesday to lead the standings and should skate faster in Thursday's medal event.

The Canadian is undefeated in World Cup races this season but Germany's Monique Garbrecht-Enfeldt came closer to upsetting the favourite than any athlete has for some time. She trails LeMay Doan by just four hundreths of a second.

LeMay Doan clocked 37.30 seconds while Andrea Nuyt of the Netherlands lies third with a time of 37.54, a national record.

The Canadian, who set the world mark of 37.22 seconds two months ago on her home track in Calgary, is on a quest to become the second woman in history win back-to-back medals in the 500 metres.

She has broken the record seven times since 1997 -- more than any other female athlete at the distance -- and is skating a second faster than she was when she first won the title at the Nagano Olympics.

Despite being given a warning at the start, LeMay Doan, 29, skated the first 100 metres just over world record pace, but she faltered slightly in the tight final inside bend.

OUTER CURVE

In Thursday's race she will be able to hold her fast pace in the wider, outer curve.

"Not her best performance but a decent race," said LeMay Doan's coach Sean Ireland. "I hope she will skate a little bit lower, a little smoother, more aggressive in her turns."

"I would be lying if I said there was no pressure," said LeMay Doan's husband, Bart, a part-time rodeo rider and ice maker at the Calgary Olympic Oval.

"She has inner confidence, she knows she can do it."

Garbrecht-Enfeldt, 33, said she surprised herself by skating so fast and setting a national record.

"I have a chance (at the gold medal) but it's not only me," said the four-time Olympian who is skating faster than ever after coming back from a retirement in 1995.

In January, she lost the world sprint title she had held for the previous three years to LeMay Doan.

Nuyt, who is ranked fourth in the World Cup standings, was disappointed with her race despite setting a personal best.

"A good time but not a good race," she said.

She placed 37th in Nagano, and like LeMay Doan, expects to benefit from skating in the outer lane in the final corner on Thursday.

Russia's Svetlana Zhurova, third in the World Cup rankings, was one hundreth of a second off the pace in fourth spot, while German Sabine Voelker, second in the World Cup, finished fifth.