Ragne Wiklund (NOR) won the first women's Allround Title for Norway since 1938 on an exciting final day of the ISU Speed Skating World Championships in Heerenveen (NED). After strong performances in the first three distances, the 25-year-old skater from Oslo reeled in Miho Takagi (JPN) in the overall classification in the final 5000m to take gold.

Marijke Groenewoud (NED) also overtook Takagi in the ranking to take the Allround silver, and the Japanese skater waved farewell to the Thailf crowd by adding a bronze Allround medal to her already impressive list of honors.

Damage control for Wiklund in 1500m

Takagi knew she had to build a cushion in the 1500m to keep Wiklund at bay in the final event, the 5000m. Skating against her Norwegian rival, the Japanese skater sped away from the start to take a 0.57s lead at the 300m split. 

Having started from the outer lane, Wiklund managed to chase Takagi on the first backstretch narrowing the gap to 0.13s at the 700m split. Takagi attacked again in the next lap, but Wiklund refused to give way. 

With a final time of 1 minute and 53.48s, Takagi kept Wiklund 0.35s behind. It left her with a 1.17-second gap to defend in the 5000m.

Trailing Miho Takagi (JPN, right) overnight, Ragne Wiklund (NOR, left) knew she had to minimise her losses in the opening 1500m race © ISU

Beune won the 1500m, finishing in 1:53.19 after an exciting head-to-head race with Marijke Groenewoud (NED). Groenewoud clocked 1:53.84.

Wiklund felt she was already close to the title after the 1500m.

"I was excited about the 1500m. I had hoped not to lose too much time to Marijke [Groenewoud], and I saw they skated very fast. I've never skated 1:54 here, so I knew that I had to do a good race. 

"I think I managed to keep it together really well, even better than in the Olympics [where she won 1500m silver]."

Norwegian traditionalists celebrate Wiklund’s milestone

Wiklund also kept it together in the 5000m, in which she had to win back 1.17 seconds on pair-mate Takagi to win the Championships. She was confident that she could overhaul the gap.

"I felt pretty safe on that one. But then Marijke [Groenewoud] did a very good 5000m [6 minutes and 52.55s], but I thought it should be possible,” Wiklund said.

"All my 5000m races have been good this year, but this was a heavy one. For sure. I didn't feel secure while I was skating."

Wiklund started a bit cautiously in the 5000m, but she managed to maintain a sub-33s lap time up until the final lap. In the end, she was 0.52 faster than Groenewoud had been.

Paired with Tagaki again in the 5000m finale, Wiklund established a comfortable lead to secure the Allround World title © ISU

Takagi managed to stay within one second of Wiklund up until the fifth lap of the 12.5-lap race, before gradually fading.

With two laps to go, Wiklund knew she was going to win the title. 

“I didn't want the coaches to tell me anything during the race, because I just wanted to do my own race,” she added.

Wiklund's title was an historic one. It was the first time since Laila Schou Nilsen won the Women's Allround title in Oslo in 1938 that a Norwegian woman has won the Championships. On top of that Sander Eitrem (NOR) won the men's Allround title, the first World title for a Norwegian man since Johan Olav Koss in 1994.

"This is special," Wiklund said. "In Norway, we have a lot of talented kids, Both me and Peder [Peder Kongshaug] were already Junior World Champions."

Along with Sander Eitrem's win in the men's Allround, Wiklund's victory rings in a successful era for Norwegian Speed Skating © Getty Images

Wiklund hopes that winning the Allround Title will give Norwegian speed skating a boost, especially because fits well into the Norwegian speed skating tradition.

"Most of the Norwegian speed skating fans only care about the Allrounds," she explained. "Maybe it's not bigger than the Olympics, but for sure it's bigger than the single distance championships. 

"That's just the tradition and we're very traditional people. The biggest fans are the ones that are used to writing down lap times, and they really appreciate that part of skating."

Takagi bids farewell with bronze

Takagi eventually dropped to third place in the ranking. Even though she kept battling all the way to the end, her 5000m time of 7:01.50 was two seconds too slow to keep Groenewoud at bay in the ranking. 

The 31-year-old, who won the 2018 World Allround Title, two World Sprint titles, six World Single Distance titles and two Olympic titles, was happy to add a bronze medal to her list of honors in her last race before retirement.

"I can't explain it. It's so special to skate my last race in here. I really fought hard until I crossed the finish line,” said Takagi.

"I didn't have room to feel emotion during the competition, because I knew it would be so hard to fight with the other skaters. I really had to focus on my race.

"I'm very happy about my racing. Especially the 1500m. I feel like this was my best 1500m race this season. I got the confidence for the 5000m, and the 5000m… that's just so hard, but it was also really fun."

Takagi was joined at Thialf by Martina Sáblíková (CZE) as Heerenveen bade farewell to two legends of the sport © Getty Images

During and after her race, Takagi got a standing ovation from the crowd in Thialf.

"Although I know it was the last time I raced, I still don’t realize it's the last time," she said. 

"When I was on the podium looking at the crowd, I had two thoughts. First: I will never see this audience and this atmosphere again, and second: I am just very happy and grateful to be able to experience this."

Groenewoud fights back to take silver

Marijke Groenewoud eventually took the silver medal, something she hadn’t expected after a disappointing 500m on Saturday. 

"I was a bit gutted after that 500m, but my coaches said that I had to be proud about the way I fought back, because I skated three good races after that,” she said.

Marijke Groenewoud (NED) bounced back from a disappointing 500m to take silver after skating strongly in the other distances © ISU

Going into the final 5000m, Groenewoud had little hope left of beating Wiklund for the title, but she did give it a try.

"I just wanted to post a good time, to scare her a bit maybe, but she just skated a super-consistent championships. So after my 500m, I think I can just be very proud of this silver medal."