SPEED SKATING
Leerdam (NED) keeps Kok at bay to win third consecutive European Sprint title
11 Jan 2025
#SpeedSkating
Jutta Leerdam (NED) edged out Femke Kok (NED) by just 0.040 points to secure her third consecutive European Sprint title in Heerenveen on Saturday. Olympic Short Track champion Suzanne Schulting (NED) seized bronze to complete a Dutch podium sweep and win her career first medal at a major international long-track championships.
Ziomek-Nogal grabs 500m silver as Kok sets up grand finale
In the 500m, Kaja Ziomek-Nogal (POL) managed to squeeze in between the Dutch skaters, who had taken up all three podium spots in the sprint competition on Friday. Femke Kok (NED) won the distance in 37.53s, but Ziomek-Nogal followed up a strong 10.40s opener with a perfect draft behind Kok (NED) on the back-stretch to set the second best time of 37.65s.
Jutta Leerdam (NED) and Suzanne Schulting (NED) took each other on in the final 500m race, and they skated perfectly in sync. After both clocking a 10.52s opener, they also completed the full lap in the exact same time to finish joint third in 37.96s.
Femke Kok (NED) repeated her victory in the second 500m of the weekend but felt she could have put more time into rival Jutta Leerdam (NED). © ISU
With her 500m win, Kok leapfrogged Leerdam to the top of the leaderboard, but with the 1000m to go, she wasn’t so sure about her title chances.
“I had a bad opener (10.54s),” Kok said of her second 500m race. “The race was flawless, but I was too slow at the start.
“I’m on top of the ranking, but I had hoped to be a little quicker. With a 0.48s gap, it’s difficult, but it’s still possible.”
Schulting was third after three of the four distances, 1.77s behind Kok. To stay on the podium, she had to defend a 0.89s lead over Ziomek-Nogal in the final 1000m.
Leerdam catches Kok in extremis
Taking on Kok in the last race of the sprint competition, Leerdam – chasing that 0.48s deficit - got out of the blocks slowly. With a 18.1s opener, she trailed Kok by 0.46s at the 200m split. At the 600m split, Kok was still 0.15s ahead, but Leerdam closed in and took benefit of the draft at the last back-stretch to overtake her rival.
By the finish line, Leerdam had established a 0.56s gap, just enough to overtake Kok by 0.040 points in the ranking.
Jutta Leerdam (NED) recovered from a slow opener to chase Kok down and win the 1000m and the Sprint Championship by eight hundredths of a second. © ISU
It had been a tough final 1000m for the now three-time European Sprint Champion.
“My 18.1 opener was three tenths [of a second] slower than yesterday,” Leerdam lamented.
“After that I managed to pull out a 26.8s lap and I was happy with that, but at the 600m split I just had a little thought like oh… then heading towards the next corner I already felt that I had more speed.
“I thought, just chase her down at the back-stretch, overtake her in the corner and skate away.
“When I saw myself crossing the line when I looked up on the screen, I knew I had enough margin [to win the title].”
Leerdam celebrated her third European Sprint Championship gold at the centre of an all-Dutch podium with Kok and Suzanne Schulting. © ISU
Kok had mixed feelings. In hindsight she thought she’d lost the battle in yesterday’s first race which she won, but not by as large margin as she would have hoped.
“Four hundredths [of a second, the gap measured in 500m times] is not much. If I look back at that first 500m, I left at least two tenths [of a second] on the ice in that race,” said Kok.
“It feels good to be this close, but I went for the title and I’m gutted that I just didn’t make it.”
Having missed the first half of the season due to a virus infection, Kok was happy to be back.
“I’m still not 100 percent, about 95 percent maybe. To screw my 500m twice like this, I can do much better. But then again, two weeks ago I was not even able to complete a full four-race tournament, so this gives me hope for the rest of the season.
“It’s a wasted chance [to win a title], but on the other hand I’m proud to be where I am.”
Former short-track queen Schulting was proud to win her career-first long-track medal at an international championships.
Suzanne Schulting (NED) added her first major long-track medal to her Short Track palmares which includes three Olympic golds. © ISU
“It’s different,” she said. “Short-track is short-track and long-track is long-track, I don’t think you should compare those medals.
“I do notice, as the season unfolds, that I’m able to look up more and more, especially to improve my own times.”
Ziomek-Nogal was best of the rest in fourth place. After already having won her career first 500m World Cup race in Beijing earlier this season, she was happy to be able to compete across a four-distance tournament.
Kaja Ziomek-Nogal (POL) broke the Dutch sprint podium stranglehold with second place in the 500m. © ISU
“I think my performance was quite good. Yesterday was worse because I wasn’t used to the ice here yet. We had prepared on much slower ice in Tomaszów Mazowiecki (POL), but today was much better than yesterday,” explained Ziomek-Nogal.
She was not worried about the gap between her and the Dutch girls, because she had proven her speed with silver in the second 500m.
“The gap is big in the 1000m, which is not my specialty. I’m better in the 500m and I know I’m able to compete in that distance.”
Margins tight in Allround competition
In the women’s Allround tournament, the margins are tight after an exciting first day of racing. Antoinette Rijpma-de Jong (NED) leads the pack after the 500m and 3000m, but Joy Beune (NED) follows closely behind while both Francesca Lollobrigida (ITA) and Ragne Wiklund (NOR) are also still in contention.
Rijpma-De Jong took a big lead when she won the 500m in 38.50s, which was 0.81s faster than runner-up Beune.
Antoinette Rijpma-De Jong (NED) took a big lead in the Allround 500m but will face sterner tests in the longer distances. © ISU
In the 3000m, the two Dutchwoman faced each other in the final paring. Being more of a long-distance specialist than Rijpma-De Jong, who has switched focus to the shorter distances lately, Dutch and World Allround Champion Beune hoped to make up time, but she had a lot of catching up to do.
Triple European Allround champion Rijpma-De Jong started fast, and halfway through the race was still ahead of her opponent. Beune managed to reel Rijpma-De Jong in, however, but the defending champion retained her lead in the overall ranking.
Beune had beaten her compatriot confidently at the Dutch national Allround championships three weeks ago, but this time around, Rijpma-De Jong skated a much better 3000m.
Rijpma-De Jong defends a 1.83s gap over Beune in tomorrow’s 1500m.
“Exciting,” Rijpma-De Jong said about going into the second day on top of the Allround leaderboard. “I have to skate a good 1500m and I hope to increase the gap, although Joy [Beune] is a very good 1500m skater too, of course.
“But I’m confident, tomorrow is a new day. I feel good and I’m looking forward to it. [In the final 5000m], it will be all or nothing.”
If Beune manages to win the title, she’ll carry the national, European and World titles at the same time.
“Maybe it’s some extra pressure, that I can do something special,” Beune said.
“But I just have to do the things I have to do. I shouldn’t think about the final result yet, because there’s still a long way to go.”
Joy Beune (NED) beat Rijpma-De Jong into second place in the 3000m but her rival holds a 1.83s lead going into the second day of the competition. © ISU
Lollobrigida and Wiklund could be the obstacles on Beune’s way. The Norwegian skated a disappointing 500m, coming ninth in 40.16s, but made up a lot of ground by winning the 3000m in 3 minutes and 59.43 seconds to climb to to fourth place in the rankings.
Lollobrigida was also faster than both Beune (coming third in 4:00.39) and Rijpma-De Jong (fifth in 4:01.61) in the 3000m. The Italian finished second in 4:00.37 and climbed to third place in the standings halfway through the tournament.
Format and schedule
The Sprint Championships are held on Friday and Saturday with a 500m and a 1000m for both genders on each day. The Allround Championships are scheduled on Saturday and Sunday.
The men will skate the 500m and the 5000m on the first day, followed by the 1500m and the 10,000m on the second. The women face the 500m and the 3000m on Saturday, followed by the 1500m and 5000m on Sunday.
In both the Sprint and the Allround tournaments the final ranking is based on the so-called 'samalog' score over four distances. The 'samalog' system converts times into points, with the 500m as the starting point. For a 500m race, the number of seconds counts as the number of points. For the 1000m the number of seconds is divided by two to calculate the number of points; for the 1500m it’s divided by three, for the 3000m by six, for the 5000m by 10 and for the 10,000m by 20.
For all information about the ISU European Speed Skating Championships, please visit the webpage here.