The 26-year-old skater from Lekkerkerk was second in the 5000 meters in the Vikingskipet in Hamar, behind Olympic champion and world record holder Nils van der Poel from Sweden. With 6.15.99 he gave up three and a half seconds of his lead over the Swede, who put 6.12.45 on the scoreboard.
Marcel Bosker set the seventh fastest time with 6.24.07. Chris Huizinga, the replacement for Beau Snellink who tested positive for corona on Saturday, came to 6.28.86. That was good for the fifteenth time. The Italian Davide Ghiotto was third with 6.19.84.
Roest immediately distanced himself in his ride against compatriot and teammate Bosker. He was able to keep his ride flat for a long time, just like at the Games in Beijing, with laps in 29 seconds. In the final laps, however, lap times increased and he remained above his best time in Hamar at 6.15.99. Van der Poel then kept his lap times all in 29 seconds and took back much of his gap on the Dutchman in the last laps.
In the standings, Roest has 1.61 seconds ahead of Van der Poel, who is second for the 1500 meters on Sunday. Norwegian Peder Kongshaug is third, 2.51 behind Roest. Bosker is in eighth place after two distances. His difference with Roest is 4.74 seconds. Huizinga is also fifteenth in the standings after two fifteenth places.
500 meters
Earlier on Saturday, Roest started with a fourth time in the 500 meters: 36.44. With that, he took a reasonable margin over Van der Poel, who surprised with a personal best of 37.33. The 500 meters was won by Dmitry Morozov from Kazakhstan. With 36.12, it was faster than the Japanese Riku Tsuchiya (36.40) and Kongshaug: 36.40.
Bosker, who was still infected with the corona virus in the past week, finished thirteenth with 37.21. Huizinga thus finished fifteenth in 37.68.