Bet on the Winner of the ISU World Single Distances Championships

Image source

Salt Lake City will host this weekend this year’s speed skating world championship, where the world’s top long track speed skaters will compete. In the 500m Russian and Japanese skaters have the smallest odds but surely the Americans will do everything in front of their fans. Bet on the winner of the ISU World Single Distances Championships, we collected the biggest favorites to help you. 

In long track speed skating, skaters are racing in a 400m long oval course. In the individual races, two skaters are competing, with changing lanes after every lap. It’s a bit tricky in 500m, as one of the skaters would only do 100m in the inner lane, so they always race twice to decide the winner. The sport is most popular in the Netherlands, Norway and South Korea, but there are rinks in Canada, the US, Germany, Japan or Russia as well. The winners are coming generally from these countries, let’s see the main favorites this year. 

Bet on the winner of the 500m at the ISU World Single Distances Championships 

Online sportsbooks in Russia are giving the smallest odds for the win of their own skater, Pavel Kulizhnikov. He has the odds of 1.75 on 1xBet. He has been the world record holder on this distance since 2015 when he became the second-youngest world single distance champion at the age of 20. Kulizhnikov has won the overall world cup three times already, including last season, and he has 36 world cup wins in total so far. 

He was suffering from injuries at the beginning of this season, but he was getting good results again. He won the 1000m and finished second in the 500m race in the last two world cup events. But he has to face strong competition from two other Russian skaters, Viktor Mushtakov and Ruslan Murashov. Mushtakov is currently leading the World Cup with 280 points after winning 2 races this year and also finishing third last week in Calgary. He also got a bronze medal from last year’s world championship, he has the odds of 4.50 to get the gold this time. 

If you want to bet on the winner of the ISU World Single Distances Championships, we have to mention a third Russian, Ruslan Murashov, who is the defending world champion in 500m. He also has a bronze and silver medal in the same event from previous championships, and he managed to win the world cup in Calgary ahead of Kulizhnikov last week. Murashov has the odds of 5.50 to defend his title. 

Pavel Kulizhnikov is the biggest favorite and world record holder [Sasha Krotov [CC BY]

Favorites in the women’s race

Online gambling sites in Russia are predicting the winner of Japanese skater Nao Kodaira in the women’s race. Her odds are 1.75.  She is the 2018 Olympic champion, also the world champion from 2017, last year she finished third. Although she is 33 years old, it doesn’t seem like she is slowing down.  She is leading the overall standing in the 2019/20 world cup ahead of her Russian opponents. Like Kulizhnikov, Kodaira is coming in good form after winning three world cup events out of six so far. 

Of course, she has to be careful with the trio of Russian skaters. From them, Angelina Golikova seems the strongest this season, who has the odds of 4.50 to win. She is currently in second place in the overall ranking in the world cup, her best individual results are silver and a bronze medal from the European Single Distance Championships from 2018 and a month ago from the 2020 competition.