For Hiroyasu Shimizu, things went according to plan. "I was relieved", he said after his first World Cup win, "The promotion to the A-division was a crucial first step. If I had not made that, my trip would have ended after Inzell. Now I hope to skate a good time in Heerenveen, and see if I can qualify for the World Championships in Nagano."

After another B-division win today, Shimizu said that he knew he was not competing for a top spot, but he could be among the best skaters again. 

Background
One asks, how an Olympic champion can be happy when he only skates his first World Cup halfway February and just wins the B-division. To understand that, you must know something, which Shimizu didn't make public until recently. The 'Emperor', as he was called by Dutch TV-commentator Frank Snoeks, was tortured by back problems in the past seasons, and he had made a decision to have back surgery in June 2007. He was hospitalized for a few weeks and missed out on a large portion of the summer training. First, he feared that this might be an entire off-year, but he picked up the pace recently and then the plan became to qualify via these steps: First, winning B-division in Inzell, second, qualifying in Heerenveen by skating well.

Japanese qualifying rules
The top-skater in the ranking of the World Cup will skate in Nagano, and in Heerenveen the total time over two races will decide on the second skater. Shimizu has that option, but it seems that Nagasjima and Kato are the two skaters that can be certain of a place. Shimizu has to compete with Obara and Ota for the remaining spot. Shimizu said that he enjoyed this challenge: "I don't hate this kind of situation where I can chase down the people from below...", he said. His back problem is fixed and his back holds.

Kato
In the A-division, Joji Kato, Shimizu's 'successor', became the first man this season to defeat Jeremy Wotherspoon. "I thought I would never beat Wotherspoon. I'm still in search for something... but this was a very good race."