Kolomna / Russia

#EuroSpeed                                 #SpeedSkating

The Netherlands grabbed gold in both the men’s and ladies’ Team Pursuit events at the ISU European Single Distance Championships in Kolomna on Sunday.

GettyImages 902233316 DutchLadies

Without absent anchor Sven Kramer, Dutch Jan Blokhuijsen, Marcel Bosker and Simon Schouten clocked 3 minutes, 42.79 seconds in the eight-lap race.

The Dutch men chased Russia, which had set 3:44.59 in the first race. Danila Semerikov, Sergey Gryaztsov, Aleksandr Rumyantsev (RUS) were slightly faster halfway through the race, but the Dutch men were better in the second part.

Schouten, who already showed his stamina when he won the Dutch marathon title in Utrecht last week, took his teammates in the draft for a the final lap with 13.7 and 13.9 split times. The Russians finished with 14.8 and 14.9 to stop the clock at 3:44.59, which was 1.80 slower than the Dutch. Russia had to settle for silver.

Poland (Jan Szymanski, Adrian Wielgat, Zbigniew Bródka), who clocked 3:52.60 in their race versus the Netherlands, edged out Norway for the bronze medal. Fredrik van der Horst, Runar Njatun Krøyer, Magnus Bakken Haugli (NOR) skated 3:53.02 to finish fourth.

Italy started fast in the final race, but Andrea Giovannini was not able to follow the pace of team mates Nicola Tumolero and Riccardo Bugari. The team eventually had to settle for 3:53.08 and fifth place.

Dutch ladies beat Russia and Germany
Marrit Leenstra, Melissa Wijfje and Lotte van Beek (NED), who had set a new Dutch Team Pursuit record in Salt Lake City last December, stopped the clock in 2:59.34 after their six-lap race.

Russia’s Olga Graf, Yekaterina Shikhova and Natalya Voronina took silver in 3:01.88 and Germany’s Roxanne Dufter, Gabriele Hirschbichler and Michelle Uhrig grabbed bronze in 3:05.03, despite a crash on the final straight.