Nuis stopped his race after the first corner and entered the approach lane. He sustained an injury there and immediately withdrew from the rest of the tournament. “I was shocked,” said Nuis at the NOS. “My iron bit into the ice and I immediately felt it on the inside of my right leg. Then when I went full into the corner and went over the left twice with my right leg, I felt my leg hurt. Now I don’t feel anything, but when I lift up on the right it hurts. I’m going to cycle now and then we’ll see. This is not nice.”
Moments later, he came with better news. “I can do some things, some I can’t. Now it only hurts when you press on my leg with a thumb. It’s a stock market place. That muscle has had an optater.”
The sprinter hoped to gain some competition incentives at the tournament in the run-up to the Olympic Games. There he will defend his Olympic title on February 8, which he won in the 1500 meters of the 2018 Games. Nuis cannot defend the title in the 1000 meters in Beijing. At the Olympic qualifying tournament, he finished fourth and missed a starting ticket.
Nuis has no chance for a second national sprint title because of not finishing the 500 meters. He previously became Dutch sprint champion in 2019. He also no longer has a chance at the third ticket for the World Cup sprint. Kai Verbij and Thomas Krol are already qualified for this.
Hard fall N’tab
Dai Dai N’tab won the first distance. With 34.90 he was the only one who managed to stay under 35 seconds. However, things then went wrong for the man who just missed the tickets at the Olympic qualifying tournament. He would like to skate to the World Cup via the Dutch National Championships, but that went wrong.
N’tab slipped on the inside bend. He took opponent Gijs Esders with him, but luckily both escaped without major damage. It did mean the end of the tournament for both N’tab and Esders.
Tijmen Snel was the fastest in the 1000 meters with 1.08.51, he was almost three quarters of a second faster than Wesly Dijs. Snel is also the new leader of the classification for Lennart Velema and Janno Botman.
On Sunday, Snel has a 0.55 second lead over Velema in the second 500 meters. Botman, who finished fourth twice, has to make up for 0.58 on Snel.
Wüst in the lead
In the women’s race, Ireen Wüst is surprisingly in the lead after two distances. The veteran mainly put a strong thousand meters on the track. The 35-year-old Brabant van Reggeborgh was by far the fastest in the 1000 meters with 1.15.07. She more than made up for her accumulated deficit of the 500 meters, in which she finished seventh with 38.61.
Michelle de Jong had won the first 500 meters together with Dione Voskamp. Both skaters finished in 38.15 and were therefore faster than Marrit Fledderus (38.32). De Jong finished second in the 1000 meters with 1.16.17, but gave more than a second to her teammate Wüst. Fledderus was third with 1.16.33. Voskamp fell back in the standings. She only came to 1.17.20 and finished ninth.
In the general classification, Wüst has a 0.09 second lead over De Jong in the second 500 meters on Sunday. Her margin on Fledderus is 0.34 seconds.
Dione Voskamp had previously won the 500 meters. With a minute difference of three thousandths of a second.