Femke Kok (NED), Suzanne Schulting (NED) and Marrit Fledderus (NED) swept the podium at the World Sprint Championships on home ice in Heerenveen on Friday. Kok took her career first World title, while Schulting and Fledderus took their career first podiums at an international championships. 

Never before have three women from the same country shared the podium at a World Sprint Championships.

Kok in league of her own

Taking a 2.65-point gap over runner-up Schulting into the second day of the competition, Kok was in a league of her own at her home rink in Heerenveen. The Olympic 500m Champion became the first woman to win all four races on her way to the World Sprint Title.

Kok agreed that her biggest opponent might have been herself.

"Yes, I think so. It was about not making mistakes, and I'm very happy that I didn't,” she said.

Femke Kok (NED) on her way to winning Friday's 500m, the third victory in her unprecedented World Sprint Championships clean sweep © ISU

After a dream season which included a World Record and gold and silver medals at the Olympic Games in Milan, Kok was still eager to win the title she didn't yet have on home ice in Heerenveen.

"I'm not here at the start for nothing, and I'm very grateful to win this one in front of all those people in the stands. That's goosebumps all over."

Enjoying a quick snack in the mixed zone, Kok was looking forward to the off-season to relax and forget about skating for a while, but she was also looking forward to new challenges for the next season.

"I just really like skating, it gives me so much satisfaction and motivation to continuously improve. 

"First I'm going to enjoy now, but there's still so many things in speed skating I want to improve. I'll set new goals for next season with my coach later."

Fledderus keeps Ziomek-Nogal at bay

Going into the second day, Kok was defending a 1.16s gap over Schulting. In the 500m, she was the only one to skate under 37 seconds again, stopping the clock in 36.76s.

Schulting finished second again in 37.48s, with Kaja Ziomek-Nogal (POL) third in 37.59s. Fledderus clocked 37.69s to make up a carbon copy of the top-four in the 500m from the first day, but all four skaters were a little slower in their second 500m run.

Marrit Fledderus (NED) needed a strong showing in the 1000m to overhaul Kaja Ziomek-Nogal (POL) in overall third place © Getty Images

In the concluding 1000m, Kok faced team-mate Fledderus in the final pairing. Schulting had already secured a medal after she finished her 1000m in a time of 1 minute and 13.81s in the penultimate heat versus Ziomek-Nogal.

The Polish skater clocked 1:15.07 in her final 1000m, putting the pressure on Fledderus in the battle for third place. 

"I felt that pressure because the margins were tight," Fledderus commented. "Therefore I was really focused at the start."

While Kok sped away to win the second 1000m in 1:13.38, Fledderus skated her own race to take third place in the final 1000m after three fourth-placed finishes. Her time of 1:15.07 was enough to lift her 0.255 points ahead of Ziomek-Nogal in the final ranking.

Ziomek-Nogal had no regrets. "I came here to have fun. I never expected to be on the podium, because I didn't skate any 1000m races this season, so I'm very proud of myself,” she said.

Kok and pairmate Fledderus hoist the Dutch flag high after securing first and third on the podium © ISU

Fledderus was especially happy with her performance after she had come second at the Dutch national Championships last weekend. 

"I had eight [distance] starts over the course of one week, so that's not something you normally do,” she revealed. 

“I felt a little fatigue today, but I just didn't want to give in and I pretended that I hadn't skated the Dutch national championships."

Schulting enjoys all-orange podium

Schulting, who won the Dutch Sprint title last weekend, had skated the same busy program as Fledderus.

"Pretty crazy," she said. "For me the most important thing was to take my good form from last week into these races.

"I wanted to skate about the same lap times, and technically similar, and it all just went very well. I skated eight races and all those races were really consistent."

Suzanne Schulting (NED, left) joins Kok and Fledderus on the all-Dutch podium for an historic 1-2-3 © ISU

Her consistency showed in the rankings as Schulting took four second places across the four distances at the World Sprint Championships. She had enjoyed joining Kok and Fledderus on the all-Dutch podium.

"We Dutch are just very good at sprinting. I honestly think that if there would have been two more Dutch skaters in these Championships, we could have swept the first five spots in the ranking. 

"We have two women [Kok and Jutta Leerdam, NED] who took gold and silver in the 500m and the 1000m at the Olympic Games. That shows the level of Dutch sprinting and I'm just really proud to be able to be on this podium."