Long Track Speed Skating

HEERENVEEN, Netherlands - Two time Olympic speedskating 1,000-metre champion Marianne Timmer's season is over after tests showed she sustained breaks in her heel bone in a fall Friday, her coach said Sunday.

Jac Orie said an MRI showed the breaks, which require 12 weeks to recover.

"This season is over,'' Orie said. "She's terribly upset.''

Asked if Timmer had a chance of defending her Olympic 1,000 title at the Vancouver Olympics in February, Orie said: "It's not realistic. She can't put any weight on the foot for weeks."

Initial tests after the fall in Friday's World Cup 500-metre race at Thialf Stadium had suggested Timmer only had a light rupture of a tendon in her left ankle leading Orie to say she needed four weeks to recover.

Timmer, 35, is one of the brightest stars in the powerful Dutch speedskating team. She won her first Olympic 1,000-metre title at the 1998 Nagano Games, where she also took gold in the 1,500.

Orie said Timmer was in great form before her crash as she geared up for Vancouver, which was to be her fourth and final Olympics.

"I don't want to make this more tragic than it already is, but she worked so hard this summer,'' he said. "She set aside everything and it resulted in very good performances, so for her season to end so abruptly is terrible.''

Orie said it is too early to assess whether the injury would end Timmer's career.

Her fall Friday came when she rounded the final bend in the 500-metre race as Jing Yu of China fell in front of her. She clipped the Chinese skater and slammed into inflatable barriers before screaming in pain. Both skaters lay on the ice surrounded by coaches and medical officials for several minutes before being carried off the track on stretchers.

"It's a terrible disappointment,'' said Timmer's training partner Annette Gerritsen, who only heard about the seriousness of the injury after her own 1,000-metre World Cup race Sunday.

"It's awful for her. She was skating well and she gets knocked out by something like this,'' she added.

Orie said the injury had hit his skaters hard.

"It has an impact on the team because Marianne has had a special place in our team for years and everybody has great respect for her,'' he said.