KEARNS — Brianna Bocox was nervous before taking the ice for the 1,000-meter World Championship and, if she’s honest, she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I was nervous, but I usually really like being nervous because then I can use that energy to go faster,” she said. “I was expecting a PB (personal best), but a PB by a second and a half, pretty much, is awesome.”
That “energy” helped the newcomer to a personal best of 1:14.111, which was good enough for 12th place. For a time, the Wyoming native was at the top of the leaderboard at the ISU World Single Distance Speed Skating Championships.
“Unreal. I was super excited,” Bocox said. “More so about having a very good personal best.”
It was her teammate and former short track athlete, Kimi Goetz, who bumped her from the top spot. The former short track competitor crossed the finish line in 1:12.705, which earned her fifth place — her second top-five finish of the weekend.
Jutta Leerdam, Netherlands, won the race with her personal best — 1:11.847. Russia’s Olga Fatkulina earned silver with 1:12.331 and Japan’s Miho Takagi took home bronze, crossing the finish line in 1:12.344.
Goetz said she’s struggled with consistently good starts this season, and she was most pleased with how she handled a less than perfect start on Saturday.
“I have been thinking all year, 1:12, 1:12, 1:12, so to be 1:12.7, I was really happy with,” she said. “The opener is not where I wanted it to be, so I feel like I kept a really good mindset.”
She said she continued to build throughout the race, and that’s something she’s struggled with in the past. She said she deliberately set a goal that was “far out, like a dream, so to speak. So to be able get that was really exciting.”
Bocox said her start made the difference for her as she continues to make progress after moving from short track to long track in August 2018.
“My starts are probably the weakest part of my skating,” she said. “Prior to this race, my fastest opener was 18.2, so to see 18.0 on the board, I was like, ‘It’s already a successful race.’”
Asked about skating on home ice in front of family and friends, Bocox grinned, “Crowd? Awesome. Huge crowd. I’m super excited my mom and my brother were able to be in the crowd. I could definitely hear my mom and then my two best friends. I could hear them as well, blood-curdling screaming. It was great.”
Her family and friends drove from her hometown of Cheyenne, Wyoming, arriving at 4 a.m. Friday.
“So I’m super excited to have them here,” Bocox said.
Defending World Champion Brittany Bowe struggled in her best event as she finished eighth with a time of 1:12.914. The current world record holder was visibly upset as she tersely answered a few questions after a disappointing race.
“The same way you always do,” Bowe said, when asked how she’ll try to regroup and improve her performance in the final race of the weekend — the 1,500-meter — on Sunday afternoon. “Move onto the next race. ... It’s a nightmare.”
In the men’s 1,000-meter, Joey Mantia finished 12th, with a time of 1:07.516, nearly two seconds behind the gold medalist.
Two more world records fell in Saturday’s races. The ladies 5,000-meter record was shattered by Russia’s Natalya Voronina, who surpassed the record of 6:42.021 by more than two seconds with a time of 6:42.01. In the men’s 1,000-meter record, Pavel Kulizhnikov beat the world record of 1:06.18 by 1:05.697.