Dennis

ISU World Cup 2023/24 - Seoul (Stage 4/6) Women's 1.000m: 01. Hanne Desmet 02. Kristen Santos-Griswold 03. Xandra Velzeboer Men's 1.000m: 01. Steven Dubois 02. Hwang Daeheon 03. Pascal Dion Women's 1.500m [1/2]: 01. Kim Gilli 02. Corinne Stoddard 03. Gong Li Men's 1.500m [1/2]: 01. Park Ji Won 02. William Dandjinou 03. Felix Roussel Mixed 2.000m Relay: 01. the Netherlands 02. Italy 03. South Korea & United States of America (both PEN in the final)

Those would also be my picks, but I have a feeling they'll go with Verstappen again.

She was on the shortlist though, but speed skaters seldomly win outside of Olympic seasons.

Nominees for the awards organized by the Dutch NOC: Best male athlete: Harrie Lavreysen (track cycling) Mathieu van der Poel (road cycling / cyclocross) [winner 2019] Max Verstappen (formula 1) [winner 2016, 2021 & 2022] Best female athlete: Femke Bol (athletics) Sifan Hassan (athletics) [winner 2019 & 2021] Karolien Florijn (rowing) Best team: Women's 4x400m women (athletics) [winner 2022] Team Jumbo-Visma Men (road cycling) Women's waterpolo team [winner 1976 & 2008] Best male paralympic athlete: Daniel Abraham Gebru (track cycling / road cycling) Rogier Dorsman (swimming) Joël de Jong (athletics) Best female paralympic athlete: Lisette Bruinsma (swimming) [winner 2016] Diede de Groot (tennis) [winner 2022] Fleur Jong (athletics) Best paralympic team: Wheelchair tennis quads doubles - Niels Vink & Sam Schröder (tennis) Women's wheelchair basketball team Tandem men - Tristan Bangma & Patrick Bos (track cycling / road cycling) Coach of the year: Evangelos Doudesis (women's waterpolo team) Eelco Meenhorst (rowing) Laurent Meuwly (athletics) Merijn Zeeman (track cycling, Jumbo Visma) The winners will be chosen by athletes/coaches (50%) and a jury (50%, consisting of former athletes, old-winners like Arjen Robben, and press). Fair nominations in my eyes in all categories.

I don't have an answer to this, but it does indeed look like it.

These are the relay teams that would now qualify for the world championships (top 11 countries + the host country the Netherlands): However, there are still 3 World Cups to go in the qualification period. Rank Men Women Mixed 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 ----- 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

That means Stage 3 of the World Cup has been completed. Host country has shown well here, much better than in the first two World Cups. and the also had their best World Cup weekend of the season so far in Beijing. was disappointing, but can hopefully make up for that next week in front of their home crowd in Seoul and also and as well as had their worst weekend of the season so far. Poland was pretty invisible this whole weekend except for the women's relay. These are the top 10 countries in the world based on the number of World Cup points they have gained this year, including points gained in relays: South Korea - 4.025 points (+1.014) Canada - 3.728 points (+1.153) China - 3.282 points (+1.505) the Netherlands - 2.686 points (+1.094) Italy - 1.873 points (+520) United States of America - 1.462 points (+476) Belgium - 1.115 points (+318) Poland - 1.028 points (+264) Japan - 992 points (+297) Kazakhstan - 779 points (+333)

ISU World Cup 2023/24 - Beijing (Stage 3/6) Women's 3.000m Relay: 01. the Netherlands 02. South Korea 03. Poland Men's 5.000m Relay: 01. Canada 02. South Korea 03. China

ISU World Cup 2023/24 - Beijing (Stage 3/6) Overall World Cup Standings after Stage 3 - Women: Kim Gilli - 615 points (-) Kristen Santos-Griswold - 600 points (-) Xandra Velzeboer - 525 points (+1) Hanne Desmet - 479 points (-1) Selma Poutsma - 372 points (+3) Seo Whimin - 343 points (-1) Courtney Sarault - 306 points (-1) Corinne Stoddard - 306 points (+4) Gong Li - 305 points (+6) Lee Soyoun - 212 points (-1) Overall World Cup Standings after Stage 3 - Men: Kim Gun Woo - 534 points (-) Steven Dubois - 473 points (-) Park Ji Won - 456 points (-) William Dandjinou - 374 points (-) Liu Shaoang - 373 points (+3) Jordan Pierre-Gilles - 370 points (+13) Pietro Sighel - 345 points (-1) Jens van 't Wout - 327 points (+1) Luca Spechenhauser - 293 points (-2) Stijn Desmet - 292 points (+1)

ISU World Cup 2023/24 - Beijing (Stage 3/6) Women's 500m [2/2]: 01. Xandra Velzeboer 02. Selma Poutsma 03. Fan Kexin Men's 500m [2/2]: 01. Jordan Pierre-Gilles 02. Steven Dubois 03. Sun Long

ISU World Cup 2023/24 - Beijing (Stage 3/6) Women's 1.000m: 01. Kristen Santos-Griswold 02. Corinne Stoddard 03. Gong Li Men's 1.000m: 01. Liu Shaoang 02. Park Ji Won 03. Jang Sungwoo

ISU World Cup 2023/24 - Beijing (Stage 3/6) Mixed 3.000m Relay: 01. the Netherlands 02. China 03. United States of America

ISU World Cup 2023/24 - Beijing (Stage 3/6) Women's 500m [1/2]: 01. Kristen Santos-Griswold 02. Fan Kexin 03. Wang Ye Men's 500m [1/2]: 01. Jordan Pierre-Gilles 02. Quentin Fercoq 03. Jens van 't Wout

ISU World Cup 2023/24 - Beijing (Stage 3/6) Women's 1.500m: 01. Kim Gilli 02. Gong Li 03. Xandra Velzeboer Men's 1.500m: 01. Kim Gun Woo 02. Li Wenlong 03. William Dandjinou

Malfatti!

If you get lapped, you get taken out of the race. Schouten passed almost everyone in her final sprint and therefore more than half of the skaters were taken out of the final classification.

I go for some surprises: Pool A: Pool B:

Yuki Kawauchi was so close. He's probably my favorite marathon runner

Interesting New York marathon with the women starting 25 minutes before the men, but Tola finishing in 2:04:59 was only shortly after the top 3 women with Obiri winning the women's race in 2:27:23. The women were consistently running at a 2:30:00+ pace for more than 35km, where the men's race was hard right from the start.

I was also surprised that Korea finished one lap before the rest, but then again, it was probably the most chaotic race I've ever seen. Some of the skaters were also confused as Kristen Santos was sprinting to the finish with the Korean skater, and then it turned out that the US had to skate one more lap. Well now it turns out that Korea also had to skate one more, so both teams sprinted to early.

Two interesting weeks in Montréal! Next week the Four Continents Championships will be held in Laval. The World Cup will continue on December 8th with Stage 3 in Beijing and then Stage 4 starting December 15th in Seoul.

ISU World Cup 2023/24 - Montréal (Stage 2/6) Women's 3.000m Relay: 01. South Korea 02. the Netherlands 03. United States of America Men's 5.000m Relay: 01. China 02. Canada 03. Kazakhstan ()

After about 10 minutes, a decision was taken: a penalty for for hitting the skater from team from behind, causing both their own skater and the Korean skater to fall. indeed won gold, silver and bronze.

The women's relay final was pure chaos: and fell (first , not much later both and ). and missed an exchange because the riders from Canada and the Netherlands were hindering each other. I don't think anyone knows who won. The on screen timing now says won, but I'm totally not sure.

I was wrong. If you sum the total World Cup points won (excl. relays) in week 1 versus week 2, then Italy is indeed under-performing compared to Stage 1. Most improved are: +336 points (796 vs. 460) +115 points (1143 vs. 1028) +115 points (716 vs. 601) Biggest decreases: -151 points (442 vs. 593) -142 points (211 vs. 353) -121 points (243 vs. 364)