Background
Shilkov, Boris was born on June 28, 1927 in Arkhangelsk.
Shilkov, Boris was born on June 28, 1927 in Arkhangelsk.
Competing for the Soviet Union, Shilkov lived in Leningrad (now Saint St. Petersburg), where he worked as an engineer In an international meet at Medeo, on 9 January 1955, Dmitry Sakunenko became the first person to skate the 5000 m below eight minutes, with 7:54.9. In a later pair Shilkov then improved this world record to 7:45.6.
Despite his 5000 m results, Shilkov had trouble with the 10000 m.
His bronze medal at the World Championships of 1955 was 0.026 points behind the silver medallist (his eternal rival, Goncharenko) – a mere 0.52 seconds of difference on the 10000 m. World record Personal records To put these personal records in perspective, the last column (WR) lists the official world records on the dates that Shilkov skated his personal records.
Shilkov was number one on the Adelskalender – the all-time allround speed skating ranking – for a total of 1,518 days, divided over three periods between 1955 and 1960. He has an Adelskalender score of 182.436 points.
After retiring from competitions Shilkov worked as a skating coach and functionary until 1989.
He started at Trud Leningrad in 1959-1962, then in 1962-1964 and 1966-1968 headed the national team, and spent his later years with Dynamo Leningrad. His pupils included Ants Antson, Igor Ostashov, Stanislav Selyanin and Vladimir Sveshnikov.