Satisfied? No, not really. “The laps just didn’t come very easily. I couldn’t really get him up to speed.” Merel Conijn could not do much more on Friday evening at the World Cup matches in Heerenveen. In the 5,000 meters, her strongest distance, she finished fifth – she had hoped for better.
That lack of speed, Conijn admitted, may have had to do with a lack of competition rhythm: it was her first ride at the highest level in more than a month. Conijn and her Albert Heijn Zaanlander team had chosen not to participate in the first two World Cup competitions of the year, in Salt Lake City and Calgary – even though she previously qualified with flying colors as national champion in the 3,000 and 5,000 meters. While most Dutch skaters crossed swords with the rest of the world’s top skaters in North America in November, Conijn stayed behind in the Netherlands to train and ride a few marathons.
There was a clear thought behind that choice. According to her coach Arjan Samplonius, two North American competition weekends in a row did not fit well with Conijn’s preparation for qualifying for the Olympic Games in Milan next February. “She experiences stress from that,” Samplonius previously told NOS. It is mainly the time difference that her body does not respond well to, Conijn said on Friday evening in Heerenveen. “A few years ago I didn’t really come back from those World Cups well, and I wouldn’t forgive myself if that were the case again.”
The Olympic qualifying tournament (OKT), at the end of December in Heerenveen, is the most important moment of this year for the Dutch skaters: only there can they qualify for the Games. In the run-up to that OKT, Albert Heijn Zaanlander opts for a unique approach: long training camps, shortly before important international competitions arrive – and therefore keep Conijn at home. Her team’s head coach, Jillert Anema, is considered to be the most obstinate coach in the already obstinate Dutch coaching guild. When asked about Conijn’s ‘alternative route’ to the OKT, Anema said no last week NRC: “It is not an alternative route, it is the normal route. The rest choose an alternative route.”
It was expected that Conijn would also skip Heerenveen this weekend: at the start of the season, the KNSB skating association had said that skaters had to compete in all World Cup competitions in principle – or none. The fact that she was there this weekend, at World Cup number three, had everything to do with the Dutch quest for starting places at the Olympic Games in Milan. To ensure the maximum number of female riders for the two long distances (3,000 and 5,000 meters) in February, two Dutch women must be in the first nine of the general classification after four World Cups – and that was not the case prior to this weekend. So the KNSB asked Conijn if she wanted to start at that distance instead of her teammate Elisa Dul.
Medal candidate
Merel Conijn (24), raised in Edam, is a medal candidate in the 3,000 and 5,000 meters in Milan. It is the first time in her career that she is preparing for the Olympic Games: in 2022 she just failed to qualify, followed by two seasons of sporting malaise due to a calcium deficiency caused by a lactose-free diet. Only after her switch to Albert Heijn Zaanlander did Conijn reach her old level again.
The use of Conijn as a ‘secret weapon’ in the battle for the Olympic starting places ultimately did not work out as hoped. With her fifth place, she did not gain enough points to get into the top nine in the rankings. She also did not set a particularly fast time – which is even more important in the battle for starting places in this World Cup. However, Bente Kerkhoff, next to Conijn and Joy Beune, the third Dutch rider to compete in the 5,000, managed to just drive himself into the top 9 of the rankings.
This does not yet mean the spoils for the Dutch women in the long distances – and that means that Conijn will probably also have to go to the fourth World Cup competition. That is next week, in Hamar, Norway – two weeks before the all-decisive OKT. Does she want that too? “I don’t know,” said Conijn. With a look to the side, where her coach Samplonius is standing: “It depends on what they say is best.”
The person who will probably get time off next week is Joy Beune. The best long-distance skater in the Netherlands is first in the long-distance rankings and has therefore scored enough points for the Netherlands – even if she does not participate in Hamar. Beune finished third in the 5,000 meters on Friday evening, behind Ragne Wiklund (Norway) and Isabel Weidemann (Canada).
Beune did not expect at the start of the season that the Olympic tickets would ultimately be so exciting for the Dutch long-distance women, she said on Friday evening. “Why is that? Those girls just didn’t drive well in North America.” She herself did what she had to do for the Dutch starting permits, Beune added. “I’m safe, it no longer depends on me. So if I don’t go to Hamar, that might also be good for those girls, then I can’t steal those points from them.”
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