SPEEDSKATING / U.S. OLYMPIC TRIALS : Questions Remain in the Distance Events

In his final race at the U.S. Olympic long track speed skating trials, Dan Jansen tied a track record in the 500-meter sprint. No surprise there, because he merely matched the time of 36.30 seconds he raced last weekend at the Pettit National Ice Center. Nor was it a surprise that Bonnie Blair won the ladies’ 500, in which she holds the world record.

But while the expected became reality in the 500-meter sprint, uncertainty persists over whether any Americans will qualify for the Lillehammer Games in the distance events.

The field for the women’s 3,000 and men’s 5,000 will be limited to the fastest 32 times in the world, with a maximum of three skaters per country. The women’s 5,000 and men’s 10,000 each will be limited to 16 entrants based on times in the women’s 3,000 and men’s 5,000.

Chantal Bailey of Boulder, Colo., who qualified in the 1,500, won the second and last staging of the 3,000 Saturday in a time of 4:33.30. Bailey, who won the first 3,000 last week, finished first overall ahead of 16-year-old Chris Scheels of New Berlin, Wis., and Angela Zuckerman of Milwaukee.

The men’s 5,000 was again won by in-line racer KC Boutiette of Tacoma, Wash. Even though he improved his time by 1.47 seconds from last weekend to 7:05.96, he’s still far off the estimated Olympic cutoff time of 6:55.

“In the 5,000, it’s looking pretty sketchy right now,” said Nick Thometz, one of the national team coaches. “We might not have anybody in the 10,000. . . . At the World Cup (meet) in Hamar (Norway, last month), there weren’t even 32 in the 3,000. Chantal, Chris and Angela should all qualify.”

Jansen will skip today’s final 1,000-meter race so he can rest. Competitors are allowed to drop the worst of their three times in that event.

“I don’t have any snap in my legs at the moment,” he said. “A lot of it is motivation. There’s nobody really here to push me to skate under 36.”

David Cruikshank of Northbrook, Ill., was second overall in the 500 and made his third Olympic team. Nathaniel Mills of Evanston, Ill., made the team for the third time and David Besteman of Madison, Wis., for the second time in long track. Besteman also made the 1988 short-track team.

Joining Blair in qualifying for the women’s 500 were Peggy Clasen of Roseville, Minn., Michelle Kline of Wauwatosa, Wis., and Kristen Talbot of Schuylerville, N.Y. Talbot is scheduled to enter Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore on Monday to donate bone marrow to her brother, who has aplastic anemia.