Joy Beune (NED) sealed her third win in three 1500m World Cup races this season on Saturday. The Dutch World Champion kept Antoinette Rijpma-de Jong (NED) and a surprising Ivanie Blondin (CAN) behind on the podium. The first six skaters all finished within a one-second margin, with Angel Daleman (NED) taking the Junior Track Record in sixth place. 

Confidence and winning go hand-in-hand for Beune

Joy Beune (NED) wins the 1500m at the ISU World Cup Speed Skating at Thialf Ice Stadium in Heerenveen, Netherlands © ISU

Beune faced Takagi in the ninth of 10 pairings. The Japanese World Record holder opened half a second faster than her Dutch opponent, but Beune made up for that with a fast first full lap and was .05s faster at the 700m split. 

Takagi attacked again in the penultimate lap, taking advantage of the inner corner to surpass Beune once more, but the World Cup leader had more left in the tank. With the fastest final lap of the field, Beune reeled in Takagi on the final backstretch to finish in a time of 1 minute and 53.10s. 

Takagi came .79s short and eventually ended up in fifth place.

Beune displayed confidence in her racing, as well as in her post-race comments.

“It’s going well, even though I had a week of training just ahead of this weekend. I’m really content to skate a time like this after the 5000m yesterday night (in which Beune finished third).

“I really look out for the races, and that has been different in the past, when sometimes I just wanted to run away if the race was on. That was especially the case when I felt I wasn’t good enough (to compete for the medals).

“I’ve got that under control now. I know that even after a tough training block I can still race to win.”

Cat-and-mouse for Rijpma-De Jong and Bowe

Beune was .26s faster than Rijpma-De Jong, who used Brittany Bowe (USA) as bait in another exciting head-to-head fight. Bowe started half a second faster than Rijpma-De Jong, and extended her lead to .67s at the 700m split, but while Bowe’s energy slowly faded, Rijpma-De Jong managed to keep her pace to finish in 1:53.36, with Bowe clocking 1:53.80 to take fourth place.

Antoinette Rijpma-de Jong (NED) in the 1500m at the ISU World Cup Speed Skating at Thialf Ice Stadium in Heerenveen, Netherlands © ISU

“That was quite a tough race against Brittany,” Rijpma-De Jong said. “She went out really fast, and then I have to race my own race, instead of trying to keep up from the start.

“In the end that went pretty good.”

Blondin chases down Daleman

In her race against Daleman, Blondin executed a similar tactic as Rijpma-De Jong had taken against Bowe. 

The Dutch junior sped away with the fastest opener of the field, but Blondin relied on stamina and caught up with Daleman in the final lap to take bronze in 1:53.43. Daleman ended up sixth in 1:53.98, a Junior Track Record at Thialf. 

Ivanie Blondin (CAN) in the 1500m at the ISU World Cup Speed Skating at Thialf Ice Stadium in Heerenveen, Netherlands © ISU

“I had a really good pair with Angel,” Blondin said. “She was so fast from the start, and I had to chase her for the entire race up. That was really good for me. It's the luck of the draw sometimes.”

Like Beune, Blondin had a quick turnaround after also having raced in Friday’s 5000m. Adjusting her stride from the 5000m to the 1500m is not much of an effort for Blondin.

“I'm used to it with how much racing I do. And there's times where I'm doing two to three races a day, and I'm able to just turn that switch in different directions. I think that comes from my short track background from years and years ago, going from race to race.”

Being as versatile as she is, Blondin also knows how to focus on a particular distance.

“I'm very competitive. It's easy for me to say: I want it all. But realistically speaking, I think my main focus is on the Team Pursuit and the Mass Start, because that's where I've had the most success. 

“Our Team Pursuit team this year, that's my baby. I want to thrive in that race, and I want to connect with the other two girls and just make it as beautiful as we can.”

Olympic qualification

The first four World Cups serve as Olympic qualification events. Speed skaters will earn quotas for their National Olympic Committees through the Special Olympic Qualification Classifications (SOQCS). Quotas will be allocated based on the SOQC Points ranking (based on points achieved at specific World Cup events) and the SOQC Times ranking (based on the best times per athlete achieved at specific World Cup events).

The maximum amount of quota places per NOC is nine skaters per gender. The quota places are determined by the SOQCS, and allocated to NOCs, not to individual skaters. There’s also a maximum amount of quota places per NOC in each distance at the Olympic Games.

For details of Olympic Qualification, click here