Mika Poutala at the start. Source: Lars Hagen

Kuipers won division B, Wennemars is ill and had Jacques de Koning replace him. Now the A-division is on the way.

Carpenter was skating alone, 35.68, but also Akio Ota skates alone, Mike Ireland is present but does not skate, we don't know yet why. 35,69 Ota.
Vincent Labrie beats Denny Morrison, 35,85 to 35,89.
The fastest opener is for Yuya Oikawa, 9.60. Smeekens 9.77, but then the lap is for Smeekens, 35,37 his time. 35,53 Oikawa.

Ki-Ho Lee is faster, 35,31, with a 5.3 last lap. Obara 35,53. Dmitry Lobkov is paired with Poutala, the gospel singer who plays with the audience. Poutala opens 9.71 and is very happy with his 35,03, his finish was a bit strange, like he pulled the best out of his toes. Lobko 35,19, second.

Joji Kato opens 9.68, Fengtong Yu 9.69, beautiful turns for this fast pair. Kato has a 5.2 lap, th fastest, and a time below 35: 34,94. Yu 35,47.

Keiichiro Nagashima 35,31 and Weijiang An 35,55 don't reach the podium. But then we have the two Lee's. Kang-Seok opens 9.61, Kyou-Hyuk 9.74. Kang-Seok wins, 34,92, faster than Kato. Kyou-Hyuk is behind Poutala, only 0.02. 

Tucker Fredricks is visibly faster in his opening, 9,57. Mun 9,83. But in spite of a hand on the ice and a lose of balance in the turn, Mun comes past Fredricks. Fredricks finishes in 35,09, but Joon Mun has a 5.1 last lap and kicks Poutala off the podium, 34,96.

The podium is Asian, with Lee, Kato and Mun. 

There is a short interview with Poutala afterwards, who had 'the most extraordinary start'. Poutala: "It's one way to do it. I threw a t-shirt in the audience. It's a token of appreciation for the audience, they are really fantastic. It's so great to skate here, thank you! I'm also very satisfied with a fourth place, I've only been on the podium twice in my entire life."