Irene Schouten and Femke Kok set Dutch records from the books on Friday evening in Salt Lake City. Schouten did that every 3000 meters and also took the victory at that distance. Kok took bronze with her record in the 500 meters.
Schouten was far too fast for her competitors with 3:52.89. Antoinette de Jong took silver, bronze was for 21-year-old Norwegian Ragne Wiklund. After the 3000 meters in Poland and the 5000 meters in Norway, Schouten also won the third long distance race in the World Cup.
In a flat race, Schouten dived below the record of 3.54.02 that Esmee Visser set at the Utah Olympic Oval in Salt Lake City in 2019. She also narrowly surpassed Martina Sablikova’s world record of 3.52.02 and showed that her training camp away from the ice has not affected her form.
De Jong came in second with 3.55.19, an improvement on her own top time, and was therefore slightly faster than Wiklund who came to 3.55.51. De Jong defeated teammate Joy Beune in her stage, who finished seventh with a personal best of 3.57.09. Carlijn Achtereekte finished fourteenth with 4.00.38. Sanne in ‘t Hof was sixteenth and last with a personal best of 4.03.19.
The results of the 3000 meters for women:
Femke Kok improved the Dutch record in the 500 meters to 37.01 seconds. With that time, the 21-year-old Frisian finished third. The victory went to American Erin Jackson, who won in 36.80 and beat world champion Angelina Golikova (36.93).
Kok dived with 37.01 just below the record that Thijsje Oenema had set on the same track in 2013 at 37.06. The skater from Reggeborgh had brought her own personal top time to 37.08 in Heerenveen last year.
Jutta Leerdam came to 37.22 and dived just below her own personal best. She finished seventh. Michelle de Jong improved herself with 37.55 and finished thirteenth.
,,The training finally went well again this week”, Kok reacted to the NOS. ,,I am very happy with the Dutch record, I had no idea how fast it was going, because I had quite a few mistakes. Still, I’m bummed that it wasn’t just 36. But that is a great challenge for tomorrow.”
Kok, the silver winner at the World Cup last season, was happy that she finally returned to the top of the standings in the 500 meters, after looking for her form in recent weeks. “I am very happy with that. Then you also see that if I’m not feeling well, it affects my skating. I hope I have a faster opening tomorrow and just as good a lap.”
The results of the 500 meters for women:
Men stay 500 meters away from stage
The Dutch skaters did not come close to the podium. Hein Otterspeer was the best in seventh place. However, with a personal best of 34.36 seconds, he was still far from winner Yamato Matsui from Japan, who won in 34.04.
Dutch champion Kai Verbij came to 34.47, just like teammate Dai Dai N’tab, who was just a little slower in thousandths of a second. They finished eleventh and twelfth and were slightly faster than Merijn Scheperkamp who improved his own top time to 34.48. The 21-year-old skater had improved his personal best to 34.75 two weeks ago, but now dived considerably and finished thirteenth.
The best time of the day was skating Chinese Tingyu Gao. That came earlier in the B-division to 33.96 seconds. World record holder Pavel Kulishnikov, who is still looking for his top form this season, came to 34.76, only the nineteenth time in the A-division. That left him more than a second above his own world record of 33.61 that he drove on the same track.
The results of the 500 meters for men:
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