CCB

What happened with Dopheide? Especially the second round of Lisanne de Witte and Femke Bol were impressive!

Exactly what happened to Joris van Gool, one of our biggest medal hope, in the 60 meter. He should have a yellow card, not a disqualification.

Indeed, it's a shame they reversed the disqualification. I don't like the Norwegian anyway (way too full of himself), but that's not the point. What about Jordier (400), Mišmaš and Vastenburg (3000)? Completely ridiculous!

With the exception of Bol, the three 400 meter men and Schilder (shot put, Olympic standard), the Dutch athletes are very disappointing in Torun. All 6 800 meter runners ran tactically dramatically today and were eliminated. Yesterday in the 1500 meters as well. Broersen jumped three times invalid in the long jump and Vastenburg was disqualified in the 3000 meters.

Team Netherlands Men Joris van Gool (60m) Raphael Bouju (60m) Liemarvin Bonevacia (400m) Jochem Dobber (400m) Tony van Diepen (400m) Thijmen Kupers (800m) Djoao Lobles (800m) Jurgen Wielart (800m) Koen Smet (60m Hurdles) Bram Anderiessen (1500m) Valentijn Weinans (1500m) Mahadi Abdi Ali (1500m) Mike Foppen (3000m) Menno Vloon (polevault) Pieter Braun (heptathlon) Rik Taam (heptathlon) Ramsey Angela (4x400 relay) Nout Wardenburg (4x400 relay) Women Jamile Samuel (60m) Naomi Sedney (60m) Femke Bol (400m) Lieke Klaver (400m) Lisanne de Witte (400m) Suzanne Voorrips (800m) Britt Ummels (800m) Bregje Sloot (800m) Nadine Visser (60m Hurdles) Zoë Sedney (60m Hurdles) Maureen Koster (3000m) Jip Vastenburg (3000m) Jessica Schilder (shot put) Nadine Broersen (pentathlon) Marit Dopheide (4x400 relay) Andrea Bouma (4x400 relay) Eveline Saalberg (4x400 relay)

Not yet, but there are rumours ...

Well, instead of South Africa we will have Greece in our group. I would have preferred Japan in our group.

The results of the last World Cup are indeed distorted. Mainly due to the lack of Miho Takagi , Graeme Fish and Zhongyan Ning . Below I indicate per distance which changes I expect. Women: 500 - We missed Nao Kodaira , but the question is how good she still is. She seems to have passed her peak. Your prediction based on the WCH seems realistic. 1000 - We missed Miho Takagi , she is the big favourite in the medium distances. She will fight with Bowe en Leerdam for the gold. 1500 - We missed Miho Takagi , pretty sure she will win this. Wiklund was a very unexpected winner. Next year I expect Bowe , Wüst and Golubeva for the silver and bronze medal. 3000 - We missed Miho Takagi and Ayano Sato . Still I think the favourites for the medals are De Jong , Schouten , Wiklund , Voronina and Sablikoba . 5000 - We missed no one. Big fight next year between Schouten , Sablikova , Weidemann , Wiklund and Voronina . Reigning Olympic champion Esmee Visser may come back next year. Pursuit: Japan will win the gold. 100% sure. Men: 500 - We missed Tatsuya Shinhama , many other Japanese sprinters and Tingyu Gao . They can change the podium, although Russia remains a favorite. 1000 - We missed Zhongyan Ning , who will win a medal in front of his home crowd. Again the Russians are favorite, although I'm not pretty sure if Kulizhnikov may start in connection with his doping history. 1500 - We missed Zhongyan Ning , no way the Dutch will get a clean sweep. Anyway, Nuis and Krol remain the other favorites. 5000 - We missed Graeme Fish . Normally he fights with Van der Poel and Roest for the gold. 10000 - We missed Graeme Fish and TJ Flowers , will be exciting to see them compete with Van der Poel . Pursuit: Japan becomes better and better, I expect a close battle with Norway, Netherlands, Canada and Russia. Mass start: unpredictable!

The draw for the Men's and Women's Olympic tournament is tomorrow right after the final, isn't it?

Tomorrow the last day of the championships and also of the speedskating season. My predictions: 1500 women - Brittany Bowe for sure, she is so much better than the rest at the moment (with the exception of Takagi from Japan) 1500 men - Patrick Roest hopefully for him finally his first individual WC-medal, the harsh conditions are in his favor 5000 women - Martina Sablikova still the best on the longest distance 10000 men - Nils van der Poel

Well @rafalgorka, after my predictions for today it turned out that I'm only human ;-). I only predicted Golikova correctly. She skated a superb 500 meter, although she really was really lucky to be able to take advantage of her opponent at the intersection. Kok finished in the outside lane and could never profit from her opponent. But hey, Golikova deserved the win for sure. The teampursuit was really close. Both winning teams know that Japan would have won, if they had participated. I think therefore the joy was not so great. For tomorrow my predictions: Mass start men: Bart Swings Mass start women: Irene Schouten , if the Canadian ladies don't deliberately bother her again. 1000 men: Pawel Kulizhnikov 1000 women: Brittany Bowe . Very sure about this one, she has the ultimate draw. Inside finish against her biggest opponent, Jutta Leerdam.

Well, at the women's side Femke Kok is the favourite, but like Patrick Roest today she has only something to lose. In addition, she has a bad draw, finishing in the outside lane. I predict Angelina Golikova for the win. The men's competition will be close, but will find Pawel Kuliznhikov on top of the ranking. Laurent Dubreuil also has a good chance. Team pursuit women: for sure. Team pursuit men: .

Nice to read your predictions. For me Antoinette de Jong and Natalia Voronina are the clear favourites at the women's side, Nils van der Poel will win the men's race tomorrow, although I hope for Patrick Roest that he can finally become world champion on a single distance.

World leading 50,81 for Femke Bol , 0,15 faster than last week. Other Dutch athletes: Lieke Klaver 51,73, Lisanne de Witte after her injury 52,82. Unfortunately we don't have a fast number four.

World leading 400 m for Femke Bol 50,96 in Vienna. Second place for Lieke Klaver in 51,46.

Amsterdam is never gonna happen, unfortunately. The residents are very much against it, except for me.

If Japan cancels these Games, there will never be Games again, because we will be in a pandemic for at least 10 years or so. Assuming the Games go on, I think it's surprising that Netherlands enforced qualification. Given their mental state at crucial moments, I never expected that. Also congrats to Hungary. No dates for draw ceremony yet. Presumably after the men's qualification tournament?

The Netherlands has so far made a sloppy impression. Everything comes down to today's game. For me, Greece is the clear favourite because of how they played so far. In 2012 the decisive game was lost against Italy, in 2016 against Spain. I fear in 2021 against Greece ... The other semifinal: I bet on Italy.

Oh wow, I'm not thinking about the Peking Games at all. First Tokio (or not). But in the Women's 3000 meter there's one clear favourite for me: Martina Sablikova from Czech Republic. For the Dutch Antoinette de Jong is the best we have. Reigning 3000 meter Olympic Champion Carlijn Achtereekte didn't even qualify for this year's World Championships and former 3000 meter Olympic champion Ireen Wüst decided not to skate this distance anymore. Tips: Martina Sablikova , Antoinette de Jong , Isabel Weidemann , Natalia Voronina and of course Miho Takagi . Takagi could win medals on 5 distances (500, 1000, 1500, 3000, team pursuit). Shorttrack mixed gender relay: should have a promising team with Suzanne Schulting as our big star. But favourites are and South Korea.

That's for sure. I was born to panic

What is not can still come. The virus continues to surprise. And in Japan they are more anxious than anywhere else.

In Japan the approval of the vaccines takes much longer. Strange, but in neighboring countries vaccinations have already started. I assume the Games will be canceled. In my opinion only 1% chance that it will continue.

Apparently Japan only starts vaccinating in May 2021. That seems pretty late. The Olympic games are no longer realistic to me.

Well, same 'problems' here. I need free time in summer anyway, so I think I will be off duty in late July/early August. For now I hope the vaccins do their job and everyone stays healthy. Unfortunately Japan only starts their vaccination program at the end of February. At the same time I very much hope the Games will go on. But as we all know: hope is deferred disappointment ...

Mathieu van der Poel really wants to participate in the MTB Olympics rather than the Tour, but the question is what his sponsor wants. But first of all: Covid-infections in Japan are increasing rapidly, so at this moment I don't expect the Games will go on at all.