KOLOMNA, Russia - For Denny Morrison the only feeling sweeter than winning two gold medals in as many days is doing it against your main rival.
Morrison won the 1,000 metres in a long-track speedskating World Cup on Sunday, while his main competitor Shani Davis of the U.S. -- the world sprint overall champion -- placed a distant fourth.
The Fort St. John, B.C., native, was charitable, however, noting that Davis, who sat out Saturday's 1,000 after cutting his leg with one of his skates in the 500 metres, probably wasn't skating at 100 per cent.
"It's still not quite the same," said Morrison. "(Saturday) when he fell he cut himself and broke some equipment. Today, he was on new equipment and managed to get a fourth place finish, which I think is still pretty spectacular."
Morrison raced to a time of one minute 08.53 seconds to lower the track record at Kolomna Speedskating Center that he set in winning the same distance a day earlier.
Dutchmen Stefan Groothuis and Mark Tuitert were 0.14 and 0.56 seconds behind for second and third.
Davis clocked 1:09.22 for fourth and 60 points. He remains on top of the standings with 590 points, 70 ahead of Morrison with two races left in the season.
"Me and him are pretty good pals," Morrison said. "I like seeing him do well. And if I do well at the same time it's a good and accurate comparison of who's got the belt."
Christine Nesbitt added a bronze in the 1,000 metres, capping an impressive weekend for the London, Ont., native.
The bronze was Nesbitt's second of the event, and it came as even shock to her, considering a difficult training regimen the skater had recently completed.
"I didn't expect to be in the best racing form because I might be tired from a hard training block," said Nesbitt. "A this point, with how the weekend went, I'm really happy with that. It was the fastest I've ever skated in Europe.
"I'm really excited for this next few weeks of racing and I hope I can build on this weekend."
Margot Boer of the Netherlands won the women's 1,000 with a track-record time of 1:15.79 for her second straight victory in as many days. Anni Freisinger of Germany was just 0.02 seconds behind for second. Nesbitt was third in 1:15.85 and continues to lead the standings with 520 points.
Jenny Wolf of Germany won the women's 100 and 500-metre races, while Tucker Fredricks of the United States gained his first win of this season in taking the men's 500.
Wolf continued her domination in the women's short-distance events, winning her eighth of ten 500-metre races in a new track record of 37.67. She also clocked 10.33 to remain unbeaten in three 100-metre races this season.
China's Jin Peiyu and Yu Jing trailed Wolf in the 500, recording times of 38.01 and 38.13 respectively. Judith Hesse was .23 seconds behind her teammate to take second place in the 100. China's Xing Aihua was third, 0.03 seconds back.
Fredricks clocked 34.81 seconds to edge out Keiichiro Nagashima by 0.06 seconds. China's Yu Fengtong was timed at 34.89 for third.
"I finally got pretty healthy over the last few weeks and it started to come around," said Fredricks. "I'm really happy to win my first podium this season."
Yuya Oikawa of Japan skated to a time of 9.61 seconds to win his third straight men's 100-metre race. His Japanese teammate Joji Kato was 0.03 seconds behind. China's Zhang Zhongqi was third with a time of 9.81 seconds.
The next leg of the World Cup is scheduled for next weekend in Erfurt, Germany.
