Dennis

And the final distances of the tournament. There have been no international competitions on the 5k and 10k yet this season, so this should be interesting.

Women's 5.000m:

1.  Martina Sáblíková
2.  Natalia Voronina
3.  Irene Schouten
4.  Isabelle Weidemann
5.  Carlijn Achtereekte
6.  Marina Zueva
7.  Claudia Pechstein (unless her back still bothers her, then she'll finish last)
8.  Valerie Maltais
9.  Nadezhda Morozova
10.  Ragne Wiklund
11.  Francesca Lollobrigida
12.  Anastasiya Grigoreva (weird choice when you have skaters like Sokhryakova/Lalenkova/Golubeva)

Men's 10.000m:

1.  Nils van der Poel
2.  Patrick Roest
3.  Jorrit Bergsma
4.  Patrick Beckert
5.  Ted-Jan Bloemen
6.  Alexander Rumyantsev
7.  Davide Ghiotto
8.  Timothy Loubineaud
9.  Ruslan Zakharov (no Semerikov?)
10.  Peter Michael
11.  Jordan Belchos
12.  Michele Malfatti (I would have expected Tumolero here)

Predictions for tomorrow:

Women's 1.500m:

1.  Antoinette de Jong
2.  Brittany Bowe
3.  Ireen Wüst
4.  Evgeniia Lalenkova
5.  Elizaveta Golubeva
6.  Natalia Czerwonka
7.  Nadezhda Morozova
8.  Melissa Wijfje
9.  Ragne Wiklund
10.  Daria Kachanova
11.  Karolina Bosiek
12.  Francesca Lollobrigida
13.  Valerie Maltais
14.  Ida Njåtun
15.  Nikola Zdráhalová
16.  Yekaterina Aydova
17.  Ekaterina Sloeva
18.  Béatrice Lamarche
19.  Sofie Karoline Haugen
20.  Abigail McCluskey
21.  Tatsiana Mikhailava
22.  Mareike Thum
23.  Sandrine Tas
24.  Linda Rossi

Again, Bowe is the favorite here, but De Jong is probably on a high after her first world individual world title, the title on the team pursuit, and I think the tougher conditions favour her.

Men's 1.500m:

1.  Thomas Krol
2.  Patrick Roest
3.  Kjeld Nuis
4.  Hallgeir Engebråten
5.  Sverre Lunde Pedersen
6.  Bart Swings
7.  Connor Howe
8.  Joey Mantia
9.  Andrea Giovannini
10.  Sergey Trofimov
11.  Allan Dahl Johansson
12.  Vitaliy Chshigolev
13.  Daniil Beliaev
14.  Gabriel Odor
15.  Demyan Gavrilov
16.  Aleksandr Podolskii
17.  Marcin Bachanek
18.  Dmitry Morozov
19.  Victor Rudenko
20.  Conor McDermott-Mostowy
21.  Stefan Emele
22.  Ethan Cepuran
23.  Cornelius Kersten
24.  Francesco Betti

Roest will benefit from the tough conditions, but not sure if he'll try to save some energy for the 10k where he has the best draw. 

9 minutes ago, OlympicsFan said:

I would like to know how Norway manages to develope so many great athletes. Speed skating isn’t exactly the most popular sport over there and still they produce tons of great talents while Germany hasn’t developed any in a long time. I get that most kids in Germany don’t care about speed skating, but the same is true in Norway and still they develope tons of talents despite having a much smaller population.

There's a lot of potential in Germany, but the development of skaters has been very poor in recent years. Claudia Pechstein's husband has a lot of power within the German federation and keeps making poor decisions. One example: https://www.sportschau.de/wintersport/eisschnelllauf/eisschnelllauf-vertrag-mit-sprinttrainer-nicht-verlaengert100.html

However, despite the poor developments in German speedskating, there are some talents coming through. The top juniors are a bit unlucky that there is no Junior World Championships this year as f.e. Anna Ostlender would have been my favorite for the title on the 500m based on her times skated in recent months. Victoria Stirnemann, Emelie Vogelsang, Isabel Kraus, Maira Jasch and Sophie Warmuth are also solid talents with great potential. Norway doesn't have such talents coming through on the women's side (besides Ragne Wiklund). On the men's side, you have Felix Motschmann and Finn Sonnekalb, but yeah, Norway does have more talent there.

I think overall, the number of talents in Germany is more or less equal to the number of talented skaters in Norway, with Germany leading on the women's side and Norway on the men's side.

What helps Norway is that Norway has 41 different 400m ice rinks, whereas Germany has 10, including the tracks in Berlin-Wilmersdorf, Grefrath, Crimmitschau and München which are barely used anymore. In Norway there are competitions held on a weekly basis on most of the 41 tracks and talents are spotted in an early stage of their development.

Japan is not here, but they are currently skating in Nagano and some of the times skated there are ridiculously good, especially if you consider that the track in Nagano is slower than Heerenveen.

Miho Takagi skated 1:13,21 on the 1.000 metres and 1:52,78 on the 1.500 metres, which are the fastest times ever outside of Salt Lake City and Calgary. 

And predictions for the 1.000m:

Men:

1.  1:07,76 - Thomas Krol
2.  1:07,86 - Kai Verbij
3.  1:08,24 - Pavel Kulizhnikov
4.  1:08,69 - Laurent Dubreuil
5.  1:08,73 - Wesly Dijs
6.  1:08,73 - Joel Dufter
7.  1:09,01 - Ignat Golovatsiuk
8.  1:09,07 - Håvard Holmefjord Lorentzen
9.  1:09,25 - Marten Liiv
10.  1:09,36 - Viktor Mushtakov
11.  1:09,58 - Nico Ihle
12.  1:09,70 - Piotr Michalski
13.  1:09,78 - Connor Howe
14.  1:09,87 - David Bosa
15.  1:09,91 - Ruslan Murashov
16.  1:09,95 - Odin By Farstad
17.  1:10,26 - Artur Nogal
18.  1:10,28 - Roman Krech
19.  1:10,46 - Cornelius Kersten
20.  1:10,60 - Artur Galiyev
21.  1:10,67 - Conor McDermott-Mostowy
22.  1:10,80 - Demyan Gavrilov
23.  1:11,15 - Peder Kongshaug
24.  1:11,15 - Alex Boisvert-Lacroix

Women:

1.  1:13,92 - Jutta Leerdam
2.  1:14,05 - Brittany Bowe
3.  1:14,23 - Jorien ter Mors
4.  1:14,72 - Angelina Golikova
5.  1:14,84 - Olga Fatkulina
6.  1:15,00 - Suzanne Schulting
7.  1:15,39 - Elizaveta Golubeva
8.  1:15,50 - Natalia Czerwonka
9.  1:15,57 - Yekaterina Aydova
10.  1:15,62 - Vanessa Herzog
11.  1:16,29 - Heather McLean
12.  1:16,40 - Kaylin Irvine
13.  1:16,52 - Karolina Bosiek
14.  1:16,72 - Ida Njåtun
15.  1:16,74 - Nikola Zdráhalová
16.  1:17,15 - Hanna Nifantava
17.  1:17,15 - Kaja Ziomek
18.  1:17,30 - Béatrice Lamarche
19.  1:17,81 - Katja Franzen
20.  1:18,09 - Ekaterina Sloeva
21.  1:18,93 - Ellia Smeding
22.  1:19,00 - Josephine Heimerl
23.  1:19,42 - Stien Vanhoutte
24.  1:20,29 - Anna Ostlender

Bowe is the big favorite here based on the world cup races this season, but her laptime on the 500m was quite disappointing, whereas Leerdam surprised me positively. And Bowe quite often flops on big occassions when she is the big favorite, like she did at the World Championships last year.

My predictions for today, starting with the mass start:

Men:

1.  Arjan Stroetinga (surprising everyone)
2.  Bart Swings
3.  Livio Wenger
4.  Jorrit Bergsma
5.  Andrea Giovannini
6.  Jordan Belchos
7.  Joey Mantia
8.  Haralds Silovs
9.  Peter Michael
10.  Stefan Due Schmidt

Women:

1.  Irene Schouten
2.  Ivanie Blondin
3.  Elizaveta Golubeva
4.  Marijke Groenewoud
5.  Linda Rossi
6.  Francesca Lollobrigida
7.  Karolina Bosiek
8.  Claudia Pechstein
9.  Marina Zueva
10.  Mareike Thum

25 minutes ago, rybak said:

I missed today races  Did anyone know if someone from our men's team falled? It can be only one reason why they finished 40 seconds behind first Netherlands.

Yep, one fell. Can’t remember which one though. 

That was an impressive race by Golikova from start to finish! 

3/3 of today’s winners predicted correctly. Let’s go Femke! 

9 minutes ago, CCB said:

Well, at the women's side Femke Kok  is the favourite, but like Patrick Roest today she has only something to lose. In addition, she has a bad draw, finishing in the outside lane. I predict Angelina Golikova   for the win. The men's competition will be close, but will find Pawel Kuliznhikov on top of the ranking. Laurent Dubreuil  also has a good chance.

 

Team pursuit women:  for sure.

Team pursuit men:  .

Yeah, outside lane in the final pair is probably the poorest draw she could have, but Femke Kok competes very well under pressure. Golikova also came closer and closer every world cup race, so yeah, she could very well win. Perhaps Herzog can surprise and become world champion for the second time. Kok and Herzog will be the ones I'm going to root for tomorrow.

Team pursuits were more wishful thinking from my side. I think the Dutch teams are the strongest on paper when you look at the individual skaters and what times they can skate on the 1.500/3.000/5.000 metres, but other teams are better at working together. I'm really interested to see how the tougher circumstances will impact the skaters compared to the previous world cups, especially skaters like Blondin, Golubeva, Wüst and Howe who are better at the 1.500m than at the longer distances. 

And predictions for the 500 metres:

Men:

1.  34,57 - Laurent Dubreuil
2.  34,60 - Dai Dai N'tab
3.  34,63 - Pavel Kulizhnikov
4.  34,65 - Ronald Mulder
5.  34,70 - Artem Arefyev
6.  34,74 - Kai Verbij
7.  34,80 - Ignat Golovatsiuk
8.  34,80 - Gilmore Junio
9.  34,87 - Piotr Michalski
10.  34,90 - Ruslan Murashov
11.  34,90 - Håvard Holmefjord Lorentzen
12.  34,90 - Bjørn Magnussen
13.  34,97 - Artur Nogal
14.  35,01 - Joel Dufter
15.  35,09 - Alex Boisvert-Lacroix
16.  35,18 - Marten Liiv
17.  35,19 - Damian Żurek
18.  35,34 - Roman Krech
19.  35,35 - David Bosa
20.  35,59 - Artiom Chaban
21.  35,68 - Nico Ihle
22.  35,69 - Mirko Giacomo Nenzi
23.  35,82 - Odin By Farstad
24.  35,92 - Christian Oberbichler

Women:

1.  37,16 - Femke Kok
2.  37,29 - Angelina Golikova
3.  37,38 - Jutta Leerdam
4.  37,41 - Vanessa Herzog
5.  37,44 - Heather McLean
6.  37,48 - Olga Fatkulina
7.  37,74 - Daria Kachanova
8.  37,84 - Hanna Nifantava
9.  37,91 - Andżelika Wójcik
10.  37,96 - Brittany Bowe
11.  37,99 - Kaja Ziomek
12.  38,03 - Suzanne Schulting
13.  38,16 - Kaylin Irvine
14.  38,25 - Yekaterina Aydova
15.  38,54 - Karolina Bosiek
16.  38,61 - Julie Nistad Samsonsen
17.  38,79 - Martine Ripsrud
18.  38,81 - Katja Franzen
19.  39,22 - Béatrice Lamarche
20.  39,27 - Stien Vanhoutte
21.  39,43 - Anna Ostlender
22. 39,50 - Sandrine Tas

Predictions for tomorrow:

Team Pursuit Ladies:

The top 3 teams are the teams with three solid skaters, whereas (apart from Switzerland) each team has two solid skaters, but missing a third one to compete for the podium. I think Canada and Norway benefited the most from the easier conditions during the World Cups.

Team Pursuit Men:

This is purely based on the individual qualities of the skaters. Norway won the World Cup, but Pedersen and Kongshaug were disappointing today on the 5.000m. Canada will start with Howe, who is more of a 1.000m and 1.500m specialist, who will struggle more with these tougher circumstances. Russia will benefit most from these circumstances. The Netherlands will most likely start with Bosker, Roest and Huizinga, who are team mates, so I expect them to work together better than the teams that started during the world cups.

On 10/02/2021 at 19:50, Dennis said:

Draws are out for tomorrow: https://live.isuresults.eu/events/2021_NED_0005/schedule

 

My predictions for tomorrow, just for fun:

 

Women's 3.000m

 

1.  3:57,53 - Irene Schouten
2.  3:58,01 - Antoinette de Jong
3.  3:58,57 - Natalia Voronina
4.  3:59,61 - Joy Beune
5.  3:59,97 - Isabelle Weidemann
6.  4:00,33 - Martina Sáblíková
7.  4:01,26 - Ragne Wiklund
8.  4:04,03 - Francesca Lollobrigida

9.  4:04,75 - Evgeniia Lalenkova

10.  4:05,79 - Valerie Maltais

11.  4:05,96 - Marina Zueva

12.  4:06,59 - Magdalena Czyszczoń

13.  4:08,29 - Sofie Karoline Haugen

14.  4:09,10 - Nadezhda Morozova

15.  4:09,55 - Ekaterina Sloeva

16.  4:10,37 - Abigail McCluskey

17.  4:10,40 - Nikola Zdráhalová

18.  4:10,42 - Elena Eranina

19.  4:11,67 - Mareike Thum

20.  4:12,84 - Linda Rossi

 

Men's 5.000m:

 

1.  6:06,11 - Patrick Roest
2.  6:10,41 - Nils van der Poel
3.  6:11,70 - Sven Kramer
4.  6:12,46 - Davide Ghiotto
5.  6:12,73 - Sergey Trofimov
6.  6:13,26 - Jorrit Bergsma
7.  6:13,63 - Hallgeir Engebråten
8.  6:14,93 - Bart Swings
9.  6:15,89 - Danila Semerikov
10.  6:17,60 - Sverre Lunde Pedersen
11.  6:18,88 - Patrick Beckert
12.  6:19,06 - Andrea Giovannini
13.  6:19,18 - Jordan Belchos
14.  6:19,28 - Michele Malfatti
15. 6:21,08 - Daniil Aldoshkin
16.  6:21,61 - Vitaliy Chshigolev
17.  6:21,76 - Peder Kongshaug
18.  6:22,16 - Ethan Cepuran
19.  6:22,71 - Timothy Loubineaud
20.  6:23,94 - Peter Michael

Full top 10 on the women's side correct, but in a completely wrong order. Sad for Wiklund she did not medal here, I was rooting for her.

The men's 5.000m prediction was quite incorrect. Disappointed by the Pedersen (2019 World Champion) and Kramer (3x Olympic Champion + 8 times World Champion) of course, but very excited to see Van der Poel win the title here. Very convincing race here and I can't wait for the 10.000 metres. I'll also keep a close eye on Aldoshkin in the future, he was my biggest surpirse of the day.

Draws are out for tomorrow: https://live.isuresults.eu/events/2021_NED_0005/schedule

My predictions for tomorrow, just for fun:

Women's 3.000m

1.  3:57,53 - Irene Schouten
2.  3:58,01 - Antoinette de Jong
3.  3:58,57 - Natalia Voronina
4.  3:59,61 - Joy Beune
5.  3:59,97 - Isabelle Weidemann
6.  4:00,33 - Martina Sáblíková
7.  4:01,26 - Ragne Wiklund
8.  4:04,03 - Francesca Lollobrigida

9.  4:04,75 - Evgeniia Lalenkova

10.  4:05,79 - Valerie Maltais

11.  4:05,96 - Marina Zueva

12.  4:06,59 - Magdalena Czyszczoń

13.  4:08,29 - Sofie Karoline Haugen

14.  4:09,10 - Nadezhda Morozova

15.  4:09,55 - Ekaterina Sloeva

16.  4:10,37 - Abigail McCluskey

17.  4:10,40 - Nikola Zdráhalová

18.  4:10,42 - Elena Eranina

19.  4:11,67 - Mareike Thum

20.  4:12,84 - Linda Rossi

Men's 5.000m:

1.  6:06,11 - Patrick Roest
2.  6:10,41 - Nils van der Poel
3.  6:11,70 - Sven Kramer
4.  6:12,46 - Davide Ghiotto
5.  6:12,73 - Sergey Trofimov
6.  6:13,26 - Jorrit Bergsma
7.  6:13,63 - Hallgeir Engebråten
8.  6:14,93 - Bart Swings
9.  6:15,89 - Danila Semerikov
10.  6:17,60 - Sverre Lunde Pedersen
11.  6:18,88 - Patrick Beckert
12.  6:19,06 - Andrea Giovannini
13.  6:19,18 - Jordan Belchos
14.  6:19,28 - Michele Malfatti
15. 6:21,08 - Daniil Aldoshkin
16.  6:21,61 - Vitaliy Chshigolev
17.  6:21,76 - Peder Kongshaug
18.  6:22,16 - Ethan Cepuran
19.  6:22,71 - Timothy Loubineaud
20.  6:23,94 - Peter Michael

5 hours ago, dcro said:

I would be surprised if the Dutch selectors even glanced at the pre-Olympic season results. She needs this next year.

Dutch media reports that Jelinkova has qualified for the Olympics.

Adriana will be the second female Dutch skier at the Olympics in history, with Margriet Prajoux-Bouma being the first one in 1952.

And the men's sprint tournament:

1. Kai Verbij 
2. Viktor Mushtakov 
3. Håvard Holmefjord Lorentzen 
4. Ignat Golovatsiuk (more wishful thinking)
5. Hein Otterspeer 
6. Thomas Krol 
7. Nico Ihle 
8. Joel Dufter 
9. Mathias Vosté 
10. Artur Nogal 
11. Damian Zurek 
12. Piotr Michalski 
13. Marten Liiv 
14. Artem Arefyev
15. Victor Lobas 
16. Odin By Farstad 
17. Bjørn Magnussen 
18. Hendrik Dombek 
19.  David Bosa
20. Samuli Suomalainen 

I wanted to make a prediction for all four tournaments, but I don't have time to look at all the participants.

However, this is my prediction for the women's allround tournament:

1.  Antoinette de Jong
2.  Martina Sáblíková
3.  Evgeniia Lalenkova
4.  Natalia Voronina
5.  Irene Schouten
6.  Karolina Bosiek
7.  Elizaveta Golubeva
8.  Francesca Lollobrigida
9.  Joy Beune
10.  Nikola Zdráhalová
11.  Natalia Czerwonka
12.  Ekaterina Sloeva
13.  Magdalena Czyszczoń
14.  Sofie Karoline Haugen
15.  Ida Njåtun
16.  Ragne Wiklund
17.  Mareike Thum
18.  Leia Marie Behlau
19.  Linda Rossi
20.  Kristiine Kalev

I'm pretty sure of my top 5. Bosiek will only finish top 8 if she wins the 500m by a good margin, otherwise she'll finish 9th and Joy Beune will take her spot in the top 8. Czerwonka and Zdrahalova can also finish top 8 if Lollobrigida doesn't skate a good 3.000m. It's almost impossible to predict what Lollobrigida can do here as she has only skated two minor outdoor competitions this season.

And some predictions for the podium per distance, just for fun. These are even more difficult to predict this season:

500m: 

1.  Karolina Bosiek
2.  Ekaterina Sloeva
3.  Elizaveta Golubeva

1.500m:

1.  Evgeniia Lalenkova
2.  Elizaveta Golubeva
3.  Antoinette de Jong

3.000m:

1.  Martina Sáblíková
2.  Antoinette de Jong
3.  Natalia Voronina

5.000m:

1.  Martina Sáblíková
2.  Natalia Voronina
3.  Antoinette de Jong

16 minutes ago, rybak said:

Looking at the number of competitors from each country I would love to see an Polish skater with medal but big number of skaters doesn't mean that we are good at all at this moment. I'm hoping for at least one top8 place. 

I think the Russians won't take this tournament too seriously, so perhaps that's where there is a chance for them. The Polish skaters have had quite a number of internal competitions this year, which might benefit them in this weird season.

Excited for the first big international competition of the season. Normally speaking, all titles will be split between the Russians and the Dutch, but I'm hoping for some surprises. 

Perhaps  Ignat Golovatsiuk can pull off a surprise in the men's sprint tournament. The 500m times he has skated in Minsk this season have been very solid.

I'm also curious to see what  Nils van der Poel can do, especially on the longer distances. I hope he qualifies for the final 10.000 meters, especially after that impressing time in Inzell.

Miho Takagi won all distances at the Japanese National Championships in Obihiro. Even more impressive is that she skated 4 new track records (1.000m, 1.500m, 3.000m and 5.000m). 

On the men's side there are five different national champions (500m = Yuma Murakami, 1.000m = Masaya Yamada, 1.500m = Takuro Oda, 5.000m = Seitaro Ichinohe, 10.000m = Ryosuke Tsuchiya).

I find it strange that Japan already held their national single distances championships 2021 in October 2020 (Nagano), so I'm not really sure what these titles mean.

3 hours ago, heywoodu said:

Sweden's Nils van der Poel was a very promising 10k rider 3-4 years ago, but since he won the 10k at the world allround championships in March 2018 he didn't compete in any serious race anymore (he did run a 171km ultramarathon in under 21 hours, it's not like he was lazy ). 

 

Today he made his comeback in Inzell.....destroying his 10k PB by nearly 20 seconds to 12:46, only five guys have ever been faster

 

He is back and the 10k keeps on getting more and more interesting!  

What a bizarre time, especially after a not so interesting 6.35 on the 5k where he finished behind 3 Danish, a Lativan and a Swiss skater and a 1.500m in 1.51 right before the 10k. 

Several national championships were held this weekend. These are the medalists with their age in brackets.

 held in Hamar

• None of the winning times on the women's side were impressive. On the men's side, the times were slightly better, though not world level. 
• Let's hope Ragne Wiklund can make some progress this year after her progress stalled last season, because she is the one who needs to carry women's speed skating in Norway over the next years as there are no signs of solid junior skatings coming through over the next years.
• Sverre Lunde Pedersen (World Champion 5.000m in 2019, Olympic Champion Team Pursuit in Pyeongchang) withdrew, not sure if this is related to COVID-19.
• Peder Kongshaug, the Junior World Champion on the 1.000m, just missed out on the podium on multiple distances, but is still a junior and skated times that would be good enough to add at least one more world title this season if the championships are to be held.
• With three neo-seniors, this must be one of the youngest podiums ever on the 10.000 meter, a distance usually not skated at junior tournaments, though Tveter skated a time above 14 minutes and Engebråten was the only skater with a somewhat competitive time of. 13.28,73. Øystein Grødum [43] who finished 4th at the World Championships in 2008, finished in 5th place.

 held in Minsk

• Ekaterina Sloeva used to represent Russia, but only took part in competitions in Belarus, so it makes sense she switched her nationality. She is by far the most surprising skater here. Again, no competitive times, even Zueva who can be world class on a good day, didn't show any impressive form. Zueva, Nifantava and perhaps Sloeva are the three that I keep my eye on for qualification for Beijing 2022.
• Ignat Golovatsiuk remains the only male skater from Belarus to post times good enough to qualify for the Olympics.
• No women's 5.000m or men's 10.000m were held.

 held in Kolomna

• Voronina (WR holder 5.000m and reigning World Champion) skated a 6.56 on the 5.000m which is impressive for this time of year. 
• Elizaveta Golubeva is the new name of Elizaveta Kazelina. That means all of the women's podiums are more or less the names you would expect there based on previous season(s). 
• Aldoshkin coming close to winning the title in the men's 1.500m is the biggest surprise for me. However, Yuskov did not take part in these championships. Neither did Kulizhnikov (WR holder 500m and 1.000m), which resulted in only 1 impressive time on the sprint distances: 34,80 by Murashov on the 500m in Kolomna, which is not considered to be a very fast track.
• Rumyantsev won the 10k in a 13.09, which is very solid for this time of year.

 held in Tomaszów-Mazowiecki

• On the women's side, all medals were won by only 7 different skaters, none of them in impressive times. This shows the lack of depth in Polish speed skating at the moment, though you see in the junior categories that they are on the rise. Bosiek will have to carry Polish speedskating over the next years though waiting for the juniors to come through. Jabrzyk looks impressive with a bronze as a 19-year old, but her time is more than 1 minute slower than the time Antoinette de Jong skated today at the Dutch national championships which earned her a 7th place.
• The Polish men also weren't that impressive and are missing a clear star skater that could carry the Polish team.
• However, Szymon Wojtakowski finished top 10 in multiple distances. He's a 15 year old and therefore junior for 4 more seasons, and is probably the best skater worldwide in his age category. He won the Vikingrace (unofficial European Championships for juniors per age category) in his category last season by obliterating all the other skaters in every single distance. The Vikingrace has been won by many Can't wait to see what he'll be capable of in a couple of years. 

 held in Heerenveen

• These are the first national titles for Irene Schouten on more traditional distances (7x national champion on the mass start) + a world leading time on the 5.000m.
• Olympic Champion Esmee Visser just missed out on the podium on the 5.000m.
• Ireen Wust has now won 41 medals at the national championships per distance. She has won at least one medal at each national championship since 2006.
• Femke Kok won her first of many national titles, standing on top of what must be the youngest podium ever at a Dutch national championship.
• The fact that Kjeld Nuis made the podium on the men's 1.000m is quite impressive after just getting out of a two-week quarantine.
• Jorrit Bergsma skated the fastest time on the 10.000m (0,3 seconds ahead of Talsma), but got disqualified for hindering Talsma on the change-over.
• The winning times on the men's 1.000m, 1.500m, 5.000m and 10.000m are currently the world leading times this season.

41 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

Lemi Williamson must be a sister of Shane?  

 

Cool to see a new 10k name!

Haha, how amazing would it be if there was another Japanese skater with the surname Williamson without any family connection to Shane? She is indeed his sister.

Arito already proved he is talented as he won 2 out of the 3 gold medals at the Youth Olympics (1.500m and mass start) this year in St. Moritz. And 13:28 in Nagano is a very respectable time for a 18-year old, so I'm excited to see what's next.

First National Championships of the season were held over this weekend in  Nagano. Here are the podiums:

Women:

Men:

Biggest surprise for me is the new 10.000m national champion Motonaga Arito as he is still a junior this season, while this distance is never on the program of international junior competitions and championships. He also beat Seitaro Ichinohe who finished 2nd at the World Allround Championships on this distance while being faster than skaters such as Trofimov, Bloemen, Belchos and Pedersen. 

On the women's side almost all medal winners are 25+ and are all names we have seen before.

And the neo-seniors (born after 30th June 1997).

Neo-seniors - Women:

#	500m	1.000m	1.500m	3.000m	5.000m
01.	Daria Kachanova	Jutta Leerdam	Joy Beune	Noemi Bonazza	Joy Beune
02.	Jutta Leerdam	Daria Kachanova	Karolina Bosiek	Nadezhda Morozova	Lemi Williamson
03.	Femke Kok	Femke Kok	Noemi Bonazza	Joy Beune	Nadezhda Morozova
04.	Kim Min-Sun	Elisa Dul	Nadezhda Morozova	Lemi Williamson	Han Mei
05.	Kaja Ziomek	Karolina Bosiek	Daria Kachanova	Yuna Onodera	Ahenar Adake

Neo-seniors - Men:

#	500m	1.000m	1.500m	5.000m	10.000m
01.	Yamato Matsui	Ning Zhongyan	Ning Zhongyan	Graeme Fish	Graeme Fish
02.	Artem Arefyev	Koki Kubo	Kim Min-Seok	Vitaliy Schigolev	Marwin Talsma
03.	Gao Tingyu	Ryota Kojima	Tyson Langelaar	Riku Tsuchiya	Riku Tsuchiya
04.	Wataru Morishige	Yamato Matsui	Riku Tsuchiya	Marwin Talsma	Chris Huizinga
05.	Koki Kubo	David La Rue	David La Rue	Hallgeir Engebråten	Vitaliy Schigolev