Jenning de Boo (NED) convincingly secured the World Sprint title at the ISU Speed Skating World Championships in Heerenveen (NED) on Friday. The Dutchman broke the World Record in the Sprint Combination by a 1.395-point margin to keep Jordan Stolz (USA) at bay 0.830 points behind.

Defending Champion Ning Zhongyan (CHN) took bronze, keeping Joep Wennemars (NED) off the podium by just 0.210 points.

De Boo beats Stolz in 500m head-to-head

As he had been on Thursday, De Boo was the only man to break the 34-second barrier in the 500m on Friday. With a time of 33.93s, he was 0.15s slower than he had been the previous day.

Starting from the inside lane against the leader in the ranking, Stolz gave De Boo a nice draft at the backstretch. The American and the Dutchman had the exact same opener in 9.59s, but De Boo was 0.24s faster in the full lap. Stolz took second place in 34.17s.

Jenning de Boo (NED) was the only man to break 34 seconds in the 500m for the second day in a row © ISU

As far as he could remember, it was De Boo's first 500m victory over Stolz in a head-to-head battle.

"I think that's a first," he said. "That feels exceptionally good.”

Laurent Dubreuil (CAN) climbed from fifth to third place in the overall ranking after he finished third in the 500m in 34.32s.

Ning Zhongyan (CHN) was 0.29s slower than Thursday’s personal best and dropped to fourth place in the overall ranking. The title defender from China did overtake Joep Wennemars (NED), however. The Dutchman had gone into the third distance as number four in the ranking, but he was 0.12s slower than Ning in the second 500m and dropped to fifth place. 

‘The most beautiful speed skating weekend of my life’

De Boo went into the 1000m defending a 1.80s lead over Stolz. The American set a time of 1 minute and 7.26s in the penultimate pairing versus Wennemars, while De Boo faced Laurent Dubreuil (CAN) in the last heat.

The Dutchman had skated 1:06.52 on Thursday, so he knew that he did not really have to worry and during his race he felt confident up until the last back-stretch.

"Normally Gerard [coach Gerard van Velde] indicates a thumbs up on the last back-stretch, and in this race I sort of nodded affirmatively, but then I though: oh s**t, I still have to finish. And I had seen Janno's last corner of course [Jarno Botman (NED) had crashed in the last corner in the 10th of 13 pairings]. That certainly went through my head.

"Of course with a 1.8s advantage you know that if you do what you have to do, you win, but all those crashes [Moritz Klein (GER) had also crashed in a previous pairing] do make it more difficult mentally."

De Boo eventually finished in 1:07.40 to take second place in the distance, maintaining a 1.66s margin over Stolz overall.

De Boo took second place in the 1000m to secure the top spot in the overall ISU World Sprint Championship rankings © ISU

Not only did he win his first World Sprint Title, he also broke the World Record for the Sprint Combination set by Kai Verbij (NED) in 2017.

"It's the most beautiful speed skating weekend of my life," said De Boo. 

The Dutchman, who won Olympic silver medals in the 500m and the 1000m, won the 500m World Championships last season, but rated the World Sprint title even higher.

"Of course, this is a four-distance tournament. Normally, I'm very good at peaking once, and now I had to do it four times in a row. 

“To do it like this, with two 33s-races in the 500m and a 1:06 and a 1:07 in the 1000m, that's something I didn’t expect when I went into the hotel for this competition."

Short turnaround for Stolz

Stolz was a bit philosophical about coming second after winning Olympic gold in the 500m and the 1000m.

"I think there's a reason why somebody wins and why somebody loses, so there's no reason why somebody shouldn't be able to find their way back winning," he shared.

"The reason I didn’t win this weekend is maybe how I peaked for the Olympics, now coming down to this. It just wasn't the best leading up to here. 

"De Boo had a really good prep for some reason, so it worked out well for him."

Jordan Stolz (USA) won his first race of the Sprint competition at the fourth attempt but now his thoughts turn to the Allround title © ISU

Winning the final 1000m didn't give Stolz much satisfaction. 

"It was nice to see a win, but it wasn't a 1:06, so if it was a 1:06 then I would have been a bit more happy."

Coming off the 1000m, Stolz has a very short turnaround before the Allround tournament, which starts with the 500m early Saturday afternoon.

"I have to try and recover as much as I can,” said Stolz.

“I don't know if it's possible. I can recover a little bit, hopefully enough to get a good lead in the 500m, but I don't think [the fatigue of the sprint tournament] will affect the 5000m too much, maybe a little bit. We'll see." 

Ning happy to take bronze

Ning finished the tournament with 1:07.88 in the 1000m, which was the exact same time as Wennemars. Dubreuil was not able to stay ahead of the pair, clocking 1:08.90 in his final distance.

Equaling Wennemars thus was enough for Ning to secure bronze.

"To be on the podium came as a bit of a surprise to me,” he said.

“I just did my best, there was not much pressure, so I'm happy to still come away with a medal."

2024 World Sprint Champion Ning Zhongyan (CHN, right) took the bronze behind De Boo in gold and Stolz in silver © ISU

The Olympic 1500m Champion was looking forward to a well-deserved holiday.

"It's been a long season, very successful with a gold medal at the Olympic Games, and now I'm ready to go back to China and spend time with my family."