Dennis

Herzog! Kodaira losing her first 500m since March 2016.

Draw 500m ladies: Letitia de Jong - Qishi Li Yekaterina Aydova - Gabriele Hirschbichler Kaja Ziomek - Ruining Tian Heather Mclean - Kaylin Irvine Hege Bøkko - Erin Jackson Marsha Hudey - Janine Smit Jingzhu Jin - Jutta Leerdam Maki Tsuji - Konami Soga Hyun-Yung Kim - Min Sun Kim Brittany Bowe - Vanessa Herzog Angelina Golikova - Daria Kachanova Olga Fatkulina - Nao Kodaira Draw not as stacked with all the medal favorites in the last three pairs and some outsiders in pair 7, 8 and 9. Draw 500m men: Piotr Michalski - Ronald Mulder Christopher Fiola - Henrik Fagerli Rukke David Bosa - Tingyu Gao Artur Nogal - Artur Was Gilmore Junio - Tae-Yun Kim Jan Smeekens - Bjørn Magnussen Dai Dai Ntab - Min Kyu Cha Ruslan Murashov - Jun-Ho Kim Laurent Dubreuil - Nico Ihle Håvard Holmefjord Lorentzen - Viktor Mushtakov Yuma Murakami - Tatsuya Shinhama Pavel Kulizhnikov - Tsubasa Hasegawa Much more exciting to me with a number of outsiders in the early pairs and the favorites in the last pairs. With the team pursuits also being skated today, I expect a lot of medals for

It’s a sponsor. It’s an organization that focuses on developing Dutch talent in different sports. Pedersen!

Today the team sprints and the 5.000m for men and 3.000m for women. Quite exciting draws: 5.000m men: Graeme Fish - Takahiro Ito Ted-Jan Bloemen - Peter Michael Jorrit Bergsma - Vitaly Mikhailov Michele Malfatti - Ryosuke Tsuchiya Håvard Bøkko - Jordan Belchos Sergey Trofimov - Andrea Giovannini Davide Ghiotto - Sven Kramer Alexander Rumyantsev - Bart Swings Sverre Lunde Pedersen - Danila Semerikov Patrick Roest - Patrick Beckert The favorites and outsiders spread out throughout the draw with Bloemen, (WR holder) in pair 2, Bergsma in pair 3, Kramer (3x Olympic champion) in pair 7, Pedersen and Semerikov (both won a World Cup this season) in pair 9 and Roest in pair 10. 3.000m women: Carlijn Achtereekte - Sofie Karoline Haugen Ida Njåtun - Ireen Wüst Nana Takagi - Roxanne Dufter Saskia Alusalu - Valerie Maltais Claudia Pechstein - Elena Sokhryakova Evgeniia Lalenkova - Miho Takagi Antoinette de Jong - Ayano Sato Francesca Lollobrigida - Natalia Voronina Isabelle Weidemann - Ivanie Blondin Martina Sáblíková - Maryna Zuyeva The entire top 13 of the Olympic 3.000m in Pyeongchang are starting here, with the Olympic Champion Achtereekte already starting in pair 1. Pretty stacked draw I would say.

Update on national records skated this season. Larissa Paes improves every competition she enters, so curious to see her progress. 500m women Vanessa Herzog 37,23 - 15-dec-18 - Heerenveen (NED) Victoria Rodriguez 39,60 - 27-okt-18 - Salt Lake City (USA) Ainoa Carreno 42,70 - 25-nov-18 - Tomaszów-Mazowiecki (POL) Tara Donoghue 43,10 - 5-jan-19 - Heerenveen (NED) Larissa Paes 44,92 - 19-jan-19 - Salt Lake City (USA) Andrea Cabrera 1.12,28 - 17-nov-18 - Groningen (NED) 1.000m women Tara Donoghue 1.25,18 - 19-jan-19 - Heerenveen (NED) 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 4.25,94 - 15-dec-18 - Salt Lake City (USA) Larissa Paes 4.49,53 - 19-jan-19 - Salt Lake City (USA) 500m men Marten Liiv 35,71 - 17-nov-18 - Obihiro (JPN) 3.000m men Viktor Hald Thorup 3:44,36 - 19-jan-19 - Salt Lake City (USA) Vladislav Bykanov 3.54,94 - 5-jan-19 - Heerenveen (NED)

and qualified through the 2019 World Qualification Event. So the qualified teams are: (host)

Update on national records skated this season. Tara Donoghue justed turned 17, so she could make some progress. Bykanov is an established short-track speed skater who often trains with the Dutch team. 500m women Vanessa Herzog 37,23 - 15-dec-18 - Heerenveen (NED) Victoria Rodriguez 39,60 - 27-okt-18 - Salt Lake City (USA) Ainoa Carreno 42,70 - 25-nov-18 - Tomaszów-Mazowiecki (POL) Tara Donoghue 43,10 - 5-jan-19 - Heerenveen (NED) Larissa Paes 45,15 - 15-dec-18 - Salt Lake City (USA) Andrea Cabrera 1.12,28 - 17-nov-18 - Groningen (NED) 1.000m women Tara Donoghue 1.25,57 - 5-jan-19 - Heerenveen (NED) 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 4.25,94 - 15-dec-18 - Salt Lake City (USA) Larissa Paes 4.56,57 - 15-dec-18 - Salt Lake City (USA) 500m men Marten Liiv 35,71 - 17-nov-18 - Obihiro (JPN) 3.000m men Vladislav Bykanov 3.54,94 - 5-jan-19 - Heerenveen (NED)

I don't think anyone is surprised as Sand has always looked quite masculine. Good for them that they are open about it.

I adjusted the list above with new national records highlighted in grey now that we're two weeks further into the season.

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.