The Dutch skaters won bronze (for men) and gold (for women) respectively at the World Cup competitions in Calgary (Canada) on Sunday evening. In doing so, they took revenge for the double fiasco a week earlier in Salt Lake City, when both teams failed to reach the podium.
The Dutch women’s team – consisting of Joy Beune, Antoinette Rijpma-de Jong and Marijke Groenewoud – narrowly defeated Canada with a time of 02:52.52; Japan came third at a slightly greater distance. A week earlier, they had finished fifth in Salt Lake City – a remarkably poor performance for the Dutch women. “Yes, this is reparation,” Beune said afterwards in front of the camera NOS.
The men – riding with Chris Huizinga, Beau Snellink and Marcel Bosker – finished third behind the United States and France, in a time of 3:38.65. They were helped by a crash by the Norwegian team, which was on course to knock the Netherlands out of third place. The bronze medal brought great relief to the Dutch men, who finished a dramatic sixth place in Salt Lake City last week, jeopardizing their qualification for the Winter Olympics in Milan in February.
Men underperform
As the world’s strongest skating country on individual events, the Netherlands has a difficult relationship with the team pursuit. The men in particular often underperform – actually since the introduction of the discipline at the Olympic Games in 2006. They won a gold medal once, in Sochi (2014), and only three bronze medals. Four years ago, at the Games in Beijing, the men were completely empty-handed. Since then, the results have hardly improved: in the last two seasons, the Dutch trio only managed to win a bronze medal twice, at a World Cup competition.
After a difficult first decade, the Dutch women have been successful in the team pursuit in recent years. Joy Beune, Antoinette Rijpma-de Jong and Marijke Groenewoud form a strong trio, which won all World Cup competitions last season and became world champion in Hamar. It was all the more surprising that they finished fifth in Salt Lake City last week.
A complicating factor for the team pursuit in the Netherlands are the commercial skating teams, which all have their own training and travel schedules. Some teams also find the component less important than others. The result is that national coach Rintje Ritsma, responsible for the team components at the Olympic Games, can only have his skaters train together to a limited extent – or even cannot have all three of his preferred skaters at his disposal.
Prefer the mass start
That was the case last week in Salt Lake City. Sander Bosker was missing from the men’s race due to an injury (he was replaced by Tjerk de Boer), while Marijke Groenewoud had withdrawn from the women’s race on behalf of her team coach Jillert Anema: she preferred the mass start later in the day. Groenewoud’s replacement Elisa Dul could not keep up with the pace of Beune and Rijpma-de Jong and had to let go in the last two rounds, meaning the women finished outside the podium. This Sunday in Calgary, Groenewoud was present again.
To qualify for the team pursuit at the Games, the Netherlands must be among the best six in the general classification after three World Cup races (or have set one of the fastest two times). The women are third and have therefore de facto qualified. The men now occupy fifth place and will have to compete in their strongest line-up at the World Cup races in Hamar (Norway) in mid-December, when the third team pursuit is scheduled.
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