Based on the first ride over 500 meters, it seems a foregone conclusion on Tuesday afternoon; Femke Kok from Nij Beets in Friesland is better than her opponents when she really has to and has a ticket for her first Winter Games up for grabs at the age of 21. In two days she has shaken off the disappointment of her sixth place in the 1000 meters and is back at it, at the distance she prefers to ride, for the simple reason that she likes speed. With 37.45 seconds she is two tenths faster than Jutta Leerdam (37.65), and a bit faster than Suzanne Schulting (37.79 seconds), the short track star who also wants to see how far she can go on the long track.
But where it was immediately clear after one attempt at the 500 meters at the Olympic qualifying tournament (OKT) four years ago who was allowed to go to the Games, the competition format has changed at the shortest distance. Sprinters now get two chances at the OKT and only their fastest time counts. A miss or two false starts are no longer fatal. Four years of training will no longer just go up in smoke. In Beijing, however, it will have to be right the first time.
But racing twice also means that little is clear after the first. The result is only an indication. Skaters are introduced to the conditions in the empty hall, they feel how their sharpened irons react at top speed on the ice floor. A good first race may take some pressure off their shoulders – after all, there is a time on the scoreboard. In the second ride there could be room for some relaxation in the movements. But there can also be doubts.
Nerves that cramp
There is little to read on the faces of the top three on Tuesday. Suzanne Schulting leaves the middle ground rather cheerfully, while Jutta Leerdam and Femke Kok do not seem entirely satisfied. In Kok’s ride, opponent Michelle de Jong made a false start, as a result of which Kok remained behind the start line for a long time for fear of being disqualified. The adrenaline must have been coursing through her veins. Already in her youth she sometimes blocked when she had to perform. And also after the 1,000 meters on Sunday, she complained about the nerves that had cramped her. Her coaches then protected her. She didn’t have to get past the writing press, but instead went home, crying with her parents in Nij Beets. Really bummed and picking herself up, she said. Focusing on the things that went well on Sunday; her start and the first 600 meters. They were the fastest of everyone.
Also read: Last chance for an Olympic ticket for Femke Kok
She traveled back to Thialf on Tuesday in good spirits. Her nerves gave way to a pleasant kind of aggressiveness. It actually felt good. Perhaps the disappointment of the 1,000 meters had helped her. Seldom has she felt so eager for a good result. It was now all or nothing. That narrowed her gaze. Failure was no longer an option.
So she won the first stage, for what it was worth. There was calm in her movements, the blows she made on the straight seemed to hit the mark. The timing of her take-off was right, after which she shifted her body weight to the other skate and let her blades cut into the ice again with rare efficiency. She seemed to be able to sit just a little deeper in the skating position than her competitors. Nice skating is often also hard. Then the complex movement on irons a few millimeters wide seems to come naturally.
Kok is last in the second round. She rides against Leerdam, who managed to beat her here in Thialf in October during the Dutch National Championships. Now they ram side by side down the first straight. Kok is smaller, more explosive over the first 100 meters and therefore faster. She only opened one time faster in Heerenveen. Then she makes a miss in the first inside bend. That costs her time and top speed. Leerdam drives towards her in long, powerful strokes at the intersection, and when they come out of the last bend they are almost equal. Kok must try to stay ahead of Leerdam at all times. Only the winner is immediately assured of a ticket to Beijing. On the finish, Kok is left with two hundredths on Leerdam; 37.30 at 37.32 seconds. That’s enough. And so a dream comes true. 21-year-old Femke Kok is going to the Olympic Games. That’s “very cool”. And “a great relief.”
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