Noorderling29

If only Prins had skated 0,006 seconds faster yesterday, all this s… was not necessary

Listening to the interviews the past four days, it’s clear just how stressfull the OKT is. Even for someone like De Boo, who is clearly our best sprinter, or Nuijs, in his 5th OKT.

For me, a system with pre-nomination only works when you only have a few stars. Of course you want to protect them. In case of yesterday’s 1500. The World champion did not qualify, but the three women would did are all capable of winning a medal and have skated faster than Beune ever did in Heerenveen. So why should Beune be protected. If we would return to that system the pressure would just be moved to the World Cup qualifiers. Miss out there, and your chances of the Olympics are hugely diminished. We had a system like that in the past, which in some cases meant that skaters who had their peak earlier in the season, or even in the previous season, but had lost their form by the time that the Games came along, were nominated. That system could well mean some newbie like van der Bunt misses out. With other Words, there is no system that 100% guarantees a perfect outcome.

Joy Beune skating faster than ever in Heerenveen, and realising one of the fastest time ever on that track, but still missing out. Since last year she seemed to have left her reputation of the Nearly woman behind, by winning almost every race. But this is so typical of the old Beune.

Gerard van Velden

Why would I be angry about something somebody posts on some internet forum?

You mean: Koen Verweij?

Kok in her interview: I told Rijpma this morning I would be her life bouy at the end.

Beune fourth, in one of the fastest time ever in Heerenveen

Without that woman-to-woman combat in the last 100 metres, they probably would not both have qualified. Beune almost fell at the moment you are accelerating, Groenewoud is a racer and managed to catch Beune in the last 100 metres.

Assuming Bergsma is pre-nominated for the mass-start (place 1 in The Matrix), there are currently 7 names in the matrix. If everything goes according to expectations, this will grow to 9. In the 1000 metres the favorites are De Boo/Wennemars/Nuijs/Prins and in the 1500 metres the last three riders. It could even be limited to 8, in the unlikely event that van de Bunt qualifies in the 1500. There is precedent there: in 2001 OKT Uytdehaage won the 5000/10.000 metres as an outsider, and also qualified for the mile, as the favorites choked. He was dismissed as a lost opportunity on the very fast Salt Lake City track, but to everyone’s surpise managed to win a silver medal. But from his interview yesterday it’s clear that van de Bunt does not expect to qualify for the games in this event, it’s his ticket to the coming All Round championships (qualification based on 1500/5000 metres times). But it could get very messy, when 1 or 2 outsiders manage to qualify.

Dutch track championships these days: - Tokyo BMX Olympic champion Niek Kimmann at the start of the sprint event, making a rookie mistake in the 200 metres qualifying, by misjudging the finish line: - Lorena Wiebes winning the Keirin, beating European champion Steffie van der Peet. She has no plans to add this number to her international program, but it shows her immense sprinting abilities.

The unanimous opinion is that Leerdam will be nominated for the 1000 metres, apparantly even among the coaches. As I understand it, this means she will take Kok’s 1000 metres spot in the matrix (place 5), Kok will take the Schulting place (7, but of course she’s allready in through the 500 metres) and Schulting will be relegated to Verkerk’s spot, number 15 and last. This will only be a problem if there are 9 skaters before her, which seems unlikely. Currently there are 7 names in the matrix. If the last two races will go to form, at most 2 names will be added (possibly Rijpma-De Jong in the 1500 metres, and less likely In t Hof or Kerkhoff in the 5000.) Only if the last two both qualify, we will get to 10 names, and then Schulting is out. There is a chance that it will remain at 7 names. That would need for Kok to qualify for the 1500 metres, which seems unlikely where it not for the fact that she owns the track record for that distance. In that case expect Rijpma to be added for the team pursuit and Kerkhoff for the mass start.

The comments I refered to are an appraisal of his performance yesterday, factoring in the high air pressure that’s not conclusive to fast times. You dismissed that appraisal of a number of experts.

She told yesterday that when, as a member of team of only female sprinters, she needed Some endurance training in 2022, she borrowed 2 youth riders to help her. Van de Bunt was one of them. She praised his technique.

I’m sure you know better than Ireen Wüst, Erben Wennemars and the other specialists in the Dutch commentary team

There’s a history of people just popping up at the OKT and winning gold at the olympics: Jochem Uytdehage, 2 golds and a silver in 2002, Wust in 2006, Visser and Achtereekte in 2018.