Dennis

No, she might be back tomorrow. She had no concussion, but a migraine attack.

Maybe good to mention that she is 33 at the moment and still improving herself.

Today, Larissa Paes skated a new national record on the 1.000m women. As I love stats, I looked up which national records have been improved this season so far as summarized below. With the world allround championships in Calgary and the world cup final in Salt Lake City this year, I expect a lot more national records to be improved during the later stages of the season. 500m women Victoria Rodriguez 39,60 - 27-okt-18 - Salt Lake City (USA) Ainoa Carreno 42,70 - 25-nov-18 - Tomaszów-Mazowiecki (POL) Larissa Paes 45,28 - 24-nov-18 - Salt Lake City (USA) Andrea Cabrera 1.12,28 - 17-nov-18 - Groningen (NED) 1.000m women Larissa Paes 1.30,08 - 1-dec-18 - Salt Lake City (USA) 1.500m women Ellia Smeding 2.04,38 - 5-nov-18 - Heerenveen (NED) Valentina Espinosa 2.06,94 - 24-nov-18 - Salt Lake City (USA) Larissa Paes 2.20,74 - 24-nov-18 - Salt Lake City (USA) 3.000m women Valentina Espinosa 4.29,83 - 15-sep-18 - Salt Lake City (USA) 500m men Marten Liiv 35,71 - 17-nov-18 - Obihiro (JPN)

I wasn't aware that it's an outdoor rink. I expect the Norwegians doing very well here. They usually do well outdoors.

Although I don't take it that seriously, I actually enjoy the Nations League. Instead of poor match-ups for the international friendlies, we now see teams of a similar level play against each other.

Medal table after the first World Cup weekend in Obihiro: 01. 05 - 03 - 03 = 11 02. 04 - 04 - 03 = 11 03. 03 - 06 - 04 = 13 04. 01 - 02 - 00 = 03 05. 01 - 01 - 02 = 04 06. 01 - 00 - 00 = 01 06. 01 - 00 - 00 = 01 08. 00 - 00 - 02 = 02 09. 00 - 00 - 01 = 01 10. 00 - 00 - 01 = 01 missed out on a bronze medal on the men's 5.000m by 0,02 seconds.

Funny that the last nine syllables are also a word in Dutch. But yeah, the video wasn't that clear to me either. Is it pronounced Ulhova?

To be complete: final medal table after the first World Cup weekend: 3 - 2 - 1 3 - 1 - 1 2 - 1 - 1 1 - 1 - 1 1 - 0 - 0 1 - 0 - 0 0 - 4 - 2 0 - 1 - 3 0 - 1 - 0 0 - 0 - 1 0 - 0 - 1 11 events with 11 different countries winning medals. Much more diversity than many other winter sports. 7 golden medals won by European countries, whereas no golden medals for and home country . The first golden medal for and an unexpected golden medal for . Also surprised to see on top of the medal table. Can't remember when/if that happened before.

A lot of new names in the US team, especially on the men’s side. I would be surprised if anyone other than Bowe or Mantia would win a medal this season, apart maybe from the mass start lottery.

Dai Dai Ntab again just missing out. 6th place on the 1.000 metres, while he needed a top 5 spot to qualify for the first World Cups.

It is, but for example at the 2017 world championships we were represented by Ter Mors (27 at the time), Van den Brandt (26) and Das (31). At the Olympics Van Beek (26) replaced Van den Brandt. All of them past their mid-20s. Now we are represented by Beuling (18), Leerdam (19) and Stollenga (23), who all have a lot of room for improvement.

Issues with her stomach. She flopped on the 1.500 metres (20th place in 2:02,36) and then decided not to start on the remaining distances.

If we do not take Ireen Wüst and Carien Kleibeuker into account, the average age of the Dutch women that qualified for the first World Cups is 23,3. So we finally see a new generation coming through Women who qualified: Name - Age - Distances Femke Beuling 18,9 500 Joy Beune 19,6 1.000, 1.500 Jutta Leerdam 19,9 500, 1.000 Esmee Visser 22,8 3.000, 5.000 Melissa Wijfje 23,3 1.500, 3.000, 5.000 Esmé Stollenga 23,5 500 Antoinette de Jong 23,6 1.000, 1.500, 3.000, 5.000 Reina Anema 25,3 3.000, 5.000 Letitia de Jong 25,7 500, 1.000 Lotte van Beek 26,9 1.500 Janine Smit 27,6 500 Ireen Wüst 32,6 1.000, 1.500, 3.000 Carien Kleibeuker 40,7 5.000

12:47,89 for Roest on the 10.000 metres

Men's 1.500m should also be interesting this year: Patrick Roest (1:44,42), Denis Yuskov (1:44,48) and Kjeld Nuis (1:44,51) all have a season's best time which are incredibly close to each other.

She skated that time a few minutes ago. It's not included in the table yet.

Best Belgian only in 10th place

spee www.speedskatingresults.com is a good website, especially to see recent national/world records

Exactly, another 30-year old. Which is fine, if that 30-year old is world class, but 4:12 in Inzell isn't world class at all. And looking at the results, there are no youngsters coming through.

Kodaira already skated a 37,30 in Nagano this season, 0,17 slower than her track record. No one this season has come close.

It's impressive that she still wins national titles at age 46, but it worries me that in Inzell - where five Dutch skaters skated under 4:06 in the past month alone - no other German woman manages to skate sub 4:12. Germany was a country that used to dominate women's speed skating not that long ago.

Medals after 4/11 events in Calgary: 1 - 1 - 0 1 - 0 - 0 1 - 0 - 0 1 - 0 - 0 0 - 1 - 1 0 - 1 - 1 0 - 1 - 0 0 - 0 - 1 0 - 0 - 1 I love how much this sport has grown in quite a short amount of time. Just 10 years ago the first world cup of the season (Salt Lake City 2008) resulted in the following medal table after all 10 events: 6 - 5 - 2 4 - 2 - 1 0 - 2 - 4 0 - 1 - 3

Gold for Suzanne Schulting on the 1.500 metres, silver for Yara van Kerkhof on the 500 metres. Good start for

in the same pool during women's volleyball nations league in week 3.

Welkom!