Fish, 23, was one of 18 skaters named to represent Canada at the World Single Distance Championships in Salt Lake City from Feb. 13-16, after a run that has seen the former Moose Jaw Kinsmen Speedskating Club competitor vault into one of the elite long-distance skaters in the world.
Fish – who as a national team member now lives in Calgary and trains at the Olympic Oval -- kicked off his campaign with a fifth-place finish in the 5,000 metres at World Cup #1 in Belarus in mid-November and followed by finishing sixth in the same distance a week later in Poland.
Then came the big breakthrough.
Fish put together one of the best races of his career to finish third in the 10,000 metres at World Cup #3 in Kazakhstan, crossing the line in 13:04.255 to finish three seconds back of Russia’s Danila Semerikova in second and five seconds back of first-place finisher Patrick Roest of Netherlands.
The bronze medal was the first for Fish on the World Cup circuit.
Fish closed out the first part of the World Cup season with a 13th place finish in the 5,000 metres in Nagano, Japan during the Dec. 13 weekend.
His quest at the World Single Distance championships will not be an easy one, to be sure.
Leading the field will be Roest, who has finished first in every distance race he’s entered this season, and when he didn’t compete in World Cup #4, it was Semerikova who landed in top spot in both the 5,000m and 10,000m.
Also in the mix will be Russia’s Alexander Rumyantsev, who sits third the World Cup standings heading into World Cup #5 in Calgary. And, of course, there’s Fish’s Canadian teammate in Ted-Jan Bloeman, who holds the world record in both long distance races and currently sits fifth in the standings.
The World Cup season wraps up with World Cup #6 in the Netherlands during the Mar. 6 weekend.
