Femke Kok (NED) won her seventh consecutive 500m World Cup Race, anchoring a Dutch podium sweep in the shortest distance on Sunday. The orange women also won the Team Sprint event, while Marijke Groenewoud (NED) took her first Mass Start gold of the season. 

Kok and Leerdam push each other

Kok faced Dutch sprint rival Jutta Leerdam in the final pairing of the 500m, and sped away straight from the start. Her 10.34s opener was the joint fastest of the field together with Kaja Ziomek-Nogal (POL), who eventually ended up eighth. Contrary to Ziomek-Nogal, Kok managed to keep on building speed, and she also skated the fastest full lap of the field to finish in 37.00s.

Femke Kok (NED) wins the 500m at the ISU World Cup Speed Skating at Thialf Ice Stadium in Heerenveen, Netherlands © ISU

After her bronze medal in the 1000m on Friday, Kok had a better feeling for the ice on Sunday. 

She said: “That 1000m just didn’t go well, so I was really eager to be good today. I’m still not super sharp, but I’m happy with the level I have right now.”

With Leerdam starting from the inner land, Kok had a perfect target on the backstretch, but Leerdam had also used her rival’s speed to push herself.

Jutta Leerdam (NED) takes silver the 500m at the ISU World Cup Speed Skating at Thialf Ice Stadium in Heerenveen © ISU

“It’s fun to skate against Femke,” said Leerdam. “I try to open as fast as I can to keep up with her, and then skate a fast lap as well. I managed to keep accelerating up until the finish line. I think I can take advantage of a fast pairing.”

Marrit Fledderus (NED) competed the Dutch podium sweep. She was happy to take her third World Cup podium of the season. 

“I wasn’t really good in the 1000m (eleventh place on Friday), so I’m glad to be back on the podium.

“My 10.6 opener was solid, but I already opened 10.5 this season, so that was my target. That means there’s still room for improvement, because you carry the speed from the opener throughout the lap.”

Marrit Fledderus (NED) takes bronze the 500m at the ISU World Cup Speed Skating at Thialf Ice Stadium in Heerenveen © ISU

Kok retained the lead in the 500m World Cup, with Leerdam climbing to second place and Fledderus in third. Erin Jackson (USA) dropped to fourth place. She got to the start line, but wasn’t able to skate due to a strained hamstring in training earlier this weekend. 

Groenewoud keeps Manganello at bay

Marijke Groenewoud (NED) made amends for a disappointing trip to the first World Cup in North America. Here in Thialf, she confidently won the Mass Start, to take her first individual World Cup medal of the season on Sunday.

With the complete bunch entering the final lap, Groenewoud positioned herself perfectly to make her move on the backstretch. With World Cup leader Mia Manganello Kilburg (USA) on her tail, Groenewoud accelerated to stay ahead of the pack up until the finish line. 

Marijke Groenewoud (NED) wins the Mass Start at the ISU World Cup Speed Skating at Thialf Ice Stadium in Heerenveen © ISU

Following Groenewoud’s move, for a moment, Manganello thought she’d have a chance to chase down the World Champion.

“Everything was moving really quickly, which I personally love. I like the faster races,’ Manganello said.

“Luckily, coming around that corner with one to go, I was able to build some speed. So the two of us (Groenewoud and herself) got a good little gap on the back stretch, then I got cocky. 

“I was very excited, I hit the corner and then my legs just wouldn't go any faster. That’s a lesson learned, but it was a good confidence booster.”

Groenewoud had also enjoyed the pace, which she and teammate Bente Kerkhoff (NED) had initiated themselves.

“We wanted to have some action from the start,” Groenewoud said. “We’re used to skating marathon races of 80 laps (in the Dutch marathon racing circuit), so we should be able to handle a tough 16 lap-race.

“It’s good to see everything’s going uphill (after the disappointing first two World Cups). Last race I was locked in for the final sprint, and this time I positioned better, and then you see the result.”

Behind Groenewoud and Manganello,  Korea’s Park Ji Woo  (KOR) took bronze. 

Manganello retained the lead in the World Cup standings. Ivanie Blondin (CAN), who finished fourth, is second and Groenewoud climbed up to third place. 

Dutch Team Sprint Track Record

After having swept the 500m podium earlier on Sunday, Kok and Fledderus teamed up with Anna Boersma  (tenth in the 500m) to win the concluding Team Sprint event on Sunday afternoon.

The Orange squad skated a track record time of 1 minutes and 25.18s, to keep Canada (Bëatrice Lamarche, Brooklyn McDougall and Ivanie Blondin) .87s behind. Poland (Martyna Baran, Kaja Ziomek-Nogal and Karolina Bosiek) took bronze in 1:26.65.

Beatrice Lamarche and Ivanie Blondin (CAN) in the Mass Start at the ISU World Cup Speed Skating at Thialf Ice Stadium in Heerenveen © ISU

Kok said she loved racing the Team Sprint event, which features in the World Cup program twice this season.

“I always enjoy skating the Team Sprint - and I regret that it’s not an Olympic event. For the endurance skaters there’s a Team Pursuit, and it would be great to also have an Olympic team event for sprinters. 

“We’ve been skating the Team Sprint for years now and it’s developing rapidly. We never did a slingshot change-up before. We practiced it once during training and it went very well in the race. Great to see that it leads to a track record.”

Olympic qualification

The first four World Cups serve as Olympic qualification events. Speed skaters will earn quotas for their National Olympic Committees through the Special Olympic Qualification Classifications (SOQCS). Quotas will be allocated based on the SOQC Points ranking (based on points achieved at specific World Cup events) and the SOQC Times ranking (based on the best times per athlete achieved at specific World Cup events).

The maximum amount of quota places per NOC is nine skaters per gender. The quota places are determined by the SOQCS, and allocated to NOCs, not to individual skaters. There’s also a maximum amount of quota places per NOC in each distance at the Olympic Games.

For details of Olympic Qualification, click here