Jinzha

The longlist for the Dutch sport awards were published last week: Men: Dylan van Baarle, road cycling Roel Boomstra, checkers Koen Bouwman, road cycling Youri Havik, track cycling Jeffrey Hoogland, track cycling Fabio Jakobsen, road cycling Dick Jaspers, billiards Thomas Krol, speed skating Harrie Lavreysen, track cycling Abdi Nageeye, athletics Kjeld Nuis, speed skating Mathieu van der Poel, road cycling Max Verstappen, polluting the world in fast cars and private jets (formula 1) Women: Femke Bol, athletics Ellen van Dijk, road cycling Karolien Florijn, rowing Therese Klompenhouwer, billiards Jutta Leerdam, speed skating Sharon van Rouwendaal, open water swimming Jessica Schilder, athletics Irene Schouten, speed skating Suzanne Schulting, shorttrack Marrit Steenbergen, swimming Xandra Velzeboer, shorttrack Anouk Vetter, athletics Annemiek van Vleuten, road cycling Marianne Vos, road cycling and cross country cycling Ireen Wüst, speed skating Team: 4x400m mixed relay, athletics 4x400m women relay, athletics TeamNL bridge open TeamNL jumping, equestrian Womens team, field hockey Teamsprint, speed skating TeamNL korfbal (I don't know what this sport is called in English) W8+, rowing M8+, rowing W2x Roos de Jong & Laila Youssifou, rowing W4x, rowing W2- Ymkje Clevering & Veronique Meester, rowing W4-, rowing Womens relay 3000m, shorttrack Mens relay 5000m, shorttrack Team Jumbo Visma (Tour de France), road cycling 49er Floris van de Werken & Bart Lambriex, sailing 49er Annette Duetz & Odile van Aanholt, sailing Paralympics: Aniek van den Aarssen, para-track cycling Daniel Abraham, para-track and road cycling Lisa Bunschoten, para-snowboard Rogier Dorsman, para-swimming Diede de Groot, wheelchair tennis Caroline Groot, para-track cycling Jennette Jansen, para-road cycling Jeroen Kampschreur, para-skiing Corné de Koning, para-rowing Lisa Kruger, para-swimming Niels de Langen, para-skiing Jetze Plat, para-triathlon/-cycling Sam Schröder, wheelchair tennis Marieke van Soest, para-road cyling Mitch Valize, para-road cycling Niels Vink, wheelchair tennis Sanne Voets, para-dressage, equestrian Diede de Groot & Aniek van Koot, wheelchair tennis Sam Schröder & Niels Vink, wheelchair tennis Jean Paul Montanus & Kelly van Zon, para-table tennis Tristan Bangma & Patrick Bos, para-track and road cycling TeamNL para-dressage, equestrian Coach: Jillert Anema, speed skating Gert Damkat, athletics Louis Delahaye, road cycling Amanda Hopmans, wheelchair tennis Eelco Meenhorst, rowing Laurent Meuwly, athletics Jamilon Mülders, field hockey Jac Orie, speed skating Jeroen Otter, shorttrack Joyce van Rooijen-Heuitink, para-dressage Gerard van Velde, speed skating Sarina Wiegman, football Merijn Zeeman, road cycling By far the hardest choice will be the women's award. How are you going to choose between: Irene Schouten (3g 1b Olympics, World champion all-round, 3g European Championships) Suzanne Schulting (2g 1s 1b Olympics) Ireen Wust (gold at 5 Olympic Games in a row) Femke Bol (2s indoor worlds, 2s outdoor worlds, 3g European Championships) Annemiek van Vleuten (world champion and all three grand tours). And that's ignoring Karolien Florijn, Marrit Steenbergen, Xandra Velzeboer and Jessica Schilder who all had exceptionally strong years as well. On the men's side I fear Max Verstappen will take the award again, though for me Fabio Jakobsen is the winner. For the team prize I'd go for either the womens short track relay or womens 4x400m relay. For the coach either Laurent Meuwly or Jamilon Mülders. I don't know enough about the paralympic sports, but it's probably between Jetze Plat and Diede de Groot there. There's no longlist for the talent awards, but two big contenders for me are Niels Laros (athletics) and Fem van Empel (cycling).

Disappointing results in the relays, why do we keep crashing out of the corner while leading the race (mixed relay last weekend, mixed and womens relay this weekend)? But at least the Dutch squad recovered from the bad results saturday (penalties for Schulting and Velzeboer). And a really strong weekend for Van 't Wout!

I hope Argentina/Messi can win it, but I expect Brazil, Germany and Portugal mostly as strong competition. Maybe France or England if they sort out their drama. For the Netherlands I believe a semifinal would already be an incredible result and some form of Van Gaal magic.

Wow Schulting and Velzeboer! An absolute shorttrack masterclass by them this weeking! Looking forward to their first 500/1000m face offs this season.

Great race by Schulting! In the last few years short track has really overtaken speed skating as my favorite winter sport.

Another chance for us to lose to the US team, nice!

Maldives Challenge tournament Women: 1. Lahti/Ahtiainen 2. Schützenhöfer/Plesiutschnig 3. Parkkinen/Sinisalo Men: 1. Cherif/Ahmed 2. Field/Budinger 3. Ahman/Hellvig The Beach Pro Tour continues pretty much all year, with various tournaments on the southern hemisphere (and in desert climates like Dubai and Cairo) now that summer has ended for most of us. They have also announced a Finals tournament 26-29 January in Doha, Qatar. I wonder what the athletes think of this year-round schedule of tournaments literally all over the world. Either way, the field for this particular challenge tournament wasn't very strong and I doubt we'll see many top contenders in the next two tournaments in Dubai either.

Some exciting results by the younger members of the Dutch team already and now another with Van der Peet's bronze in the Keirin!

So the 20+ Serbs in the row below and beside me in the stadium turned out to be Boskovic's family. Their fanatism was like I was at a club football match. I believe we saw a well deserved champion today. Boskovic is just unplayable, but Serbia as a team did a good job shutting down Gabi.

I'm in the middle of a group of Serbian fans, I might have to reconsider my position...

I'll be cheering for Brazil live at the finals on saturday. That was an incredible semifinal vs Italy! Carol's blocking is insane

Another tournament with only bronze medals for the Dutch, third in a row at the global scale. Hopefully Van Dijke still has a few shots at a global or Olympic gold in her.

Two world championships bronze and an Olympic bronze, Sanne van Dijke has really begun a collection. I wonder if we'll get anything other than bronze this tournament, something the Dutch team hasn't managed to do at the international stage since the gold medal for Van 't End I believe.

Incredibly close match between and , I really thought we could've won, but in the end China takes the 5th set. I believe we played the best volleyball of our tournament so far though, so hopefully our (probably) last two matches build on that positive line.

I'm surprised to see the women's team sprint for the Netherlands is not projected to qualify yet? They were second in the recent european championship.

These second pool rounds make the tournaments feel like a slow grind instead of an exciting all-or-nothing moment, like say a football or athletics world championship. Anyway, happy to see another win for the Dutch and especially happy that our coach finally let Dambrink play multiple full sets. Dambrink is younger, better and more varied than Plak. All Plak has over her is experience and past performances, but right now Dambrink is simply the better option tbh.

Veel plezier vanavond @CCB! De sfeer bij zo'n volleybal wedstrijd is toch altijd wel heel leuk, ook al leeft het op tv en in de media niet heel erg.

Bogota World Cup stage 7 Men: 1. Joris Daudet 2. Kye White 3. Alfredo Campo Women: 1. Laura Smulders 2. Alise Willoughby 3. Zoe Claessens Bogota World Cup stage 8 Men: 1. Joris Daudet 2. Izaac Kennedy 3. Cameron Wood Women: 1. Mariana Pajon 2. Merel Smulders 3. Zoe Claessens That concludes the BMX racing world cup for this year. Winners of the overall standing are Sylvain Andre and Laura Smulders!

Je merkt echt dat er met Slöetjes, De Kruijff en Belien een groep wereldtop weg is gegaan. Nu zijn denk ik alleen Buijs en Daalderop nog als wereldtop te zien, de rest heeft toch moeite met het niveau van een Italië en zoals we zagen zelfs tegen België. Ik vind eigenlijk naast Buijs niemand echt heel positief opvallen in het toernooi tot nu toe. Wel erg tevreden dat we vandaag een spannende wedstrijd live hebben kunnen zien, ik geloofde zelfs nog even in een 5e set. Was wel een beetje bang dat het een snelle 3-0 zou worden.

Paris, France Elite 16 tournament Women: 1. Stam/Schoon 2. Graudina/Samoilova 3. Duda/Ana Patricia Men: 1. Mol/Sorum 2. Brouwer/Meeuwsen 3. Nicolai/Cottafava Happy to see Stam/Schoon take another tournament with some convincing wins on their way! And it's crazy to see Brouwer/Meeuwsen are still among the best teams after all these years.

I tried... Had a great afternoon though!

If the Dutch team is suddenly much improved versus Italy today, that might be because I'll be cheering them on live. We'll see!

Isn't there also the ISL (International Swim League) where they swim in commercial teams?

Italy - Belgium looks like it was a really close game today, until the Belgians got tired after 3 sets: - 21-25 30-28 29-27 25-9 Closest game yesterday was - (3-2). In the end both favorites won their games. I believe Turkey's loss to Thailand remains the only notable upset so far then.

Bogota World Cup stage 5 Men: 1. Niek Kimmann 2. Cameron Wood 3. Sylvain Andre Women: 1. Bethany Shriever 2. Laura Smulders 3. Alise Willoughby Bogota World Cup stage 6 Men: 1. Cameron Wood 2. Joris Daudet 3. Izaac Kennedy Women: 1. Laura Smulders 2. Alise Willoughby 3. Lauren Reynolds