9

Jan Erik Vold

As described in the collection "En sirkel is" by Norwegian poet Jan Erik Vold, consisting of 25 laps plus a few laps of honour. Unofficial translation into English of lap no. 9, describing how the poet as a boy (he was about ten years old at the time) attended his first major speedskating championship.
These were, of course, Vold's perceptions at the time. It was indeed thought that the conditions would only deteriorate -- as it turned out, they improved as it got colder towards the end of the event. This seems to have played a role; though the story that Pajor's capabilities to skate on a narrow stripe of ice had been honed on shorter tracks may have some merit, it could hardly explain the entire difference. Besides, Broekman had no such advantage and skated almost as fast (or non-fast).
Another part of Norwegian speedskating lore in connection with this event is that Werket, who was in the lead after three distances, skated against Hjalmar Andersen, and Andersen deliberately stayed behind Werket until it was obvious that the American could not beat Lundberg; only then pulling away. This may go some way to explain Andersen's relatively slow time.
Incidentally, Vold also honoured Pajor on "lap no. 2" of the collection, mentioning him as the first skater below 17.00.

A small detour regarding my translation: To keep as closely as possible to the structure of the original, I've used the term 10K, though it is normally not used about skating in Norwegian. Vold used the affectionate term "tiern" (the ten). In Norwegian practice, skiers for some reason do the 10 km, while skaters do the 10.000 m. And in athletics, it's even worse. If you run on a track, it's a 10.000 m, but if you run on a street, it's a 10 km. Seems fixed tracks were probably regarded as more accurate.




9
The Worlds in Oslo
1949, they opened the gates
before
the 10K, I got in for free
on the grandstand. Perfect
pairing
for Norway:
Odd Lundberg in the first pair (it was drippingly
mild and the ice would only get
worse), his toughest rivals
Pajor and Broekman
would skate together in the sixth
and final pair. Heavy
Lundberg, maybe he had a chance
after all, skating
19:41.0 - his lead was 21.6 seconds over Pajor and 21.2
over Broekman. Hjalmar Andersen, newly-crowned
world record holder
in the fourth pair
did 19:48.3. But slender Pajor only slided
over the water and managed
an impressive 18.42,0, the heavier Broekman
did 18.53,3 - last year's winner Lundberg had to settle
for bronze. On my way home
I picked up a programme from the pavement
and I filled it in
with the times from Monday's papers.

Input material by:
Added: 14 July 2001
Translation: Tore Jan Narvestad

Last changes on this page 14 July 2001
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