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KEARNS - U.S. speedskater Shani Davis set out to be more aggressive Saturday, not that his results so far this young World Cup season would suggest he was being cautious.
After a gold and a silver last week in Calgary, and a second-place finish Friday behind American teammate Chad Hedrick, Davis won the 1,000-meter race Saturday at Utah Olympic Oval.
"This race was a trial to fix . . . what I had not been doing good," said Davis, 23, a Chicago native and the reigning world all-around champion. "In general, I need to be more aggressive."
He accomplished that goal, covering the 1,000 meters in 1 minute, 7.48 seconds, three-tenths of a second off the world record set at the 2002 Winter Olympics by Gerard van Velde of The Netherlands (1:07.18).
Davis led a strong American showing, with four skaters in the top 11. Joey Cheek earned the bronze medal, Kip Carpenter was sixth and Casey FitzRandolph, 2002 Olympic gold medalist at 500 meters, was 11th.
His was the lone American victory in a day when two world records were broken.
Japan's Joji Kato snapped the 500-meter world record set by his teammate, Hiroyasu Shimizu, at the oval on March 10, 2001. Skating in a pair with Cheek, Kato completed the sprint in 34.30 seconds, .02 better than Shimizu's longstanding mark.
Shimizu placed 11th Saturday, trailing three Americans who finished in the top seven: Cheek (fourth), FitzRandolph (fifth) and Carpenter (seventh).
Hedrick's 5,000-meter world record, set last weekend in Calgary, was broken by a pair of Dutch skaters going head-to-head. The new record belong to Sven Kramer, whose time of 6 minutes and 8.78 seconds knocked almost a full second off the 6:09.68 Hedrick posted in Calgary. Dutchman Carl Verheijen finished second Saturday, Hedrick third.
With their performances this weekend, Davis and Hedrick continue to establish themselves as the go-to guys on a deep American men's team, a particularly impressive development since Davis came out of short-track skating, Hedrick out of inline.
"Seeing Chad going so fast makes me believe the sport is evolving," said Davis, adding that he was not bothered when Hedrick broke his world record Friday in the 1,500-meter race. "Chad is a world champion [2004] and I'm a world champion [2005] . . . I really don't care about world records. If I skate a good race and a world record results, that's a bonus."
In the sole women's race of the day, American Jennifer Rodriguez led the 1,000-meter field heading into the final pairing of skaters. But she ended up finishing third when German Anni Friesinger and Italian Chiara Simionato both bested her time, Friesinger capturing the gold in 1 minute 13.99 seconds.
"It was not my day," said Rodriguez, even though the medal was her third in two days. "My main goal is the Olympics, not the World Cup . . . I'll use this as a good building block."
Chris Witty, who set the 1,000-meter world record in winning the gold medal at the Salt Lake Olympics, was disqualified Saturday after a false start. "It's an awful feeling," she said. "I don't want that feeling again. But it might get me more motivated for next weekend" when the World Cup moves on to Milwaukee.