Thomas Krol world champion sprint for Kai Verbij | Ice skating

In the 500 meters won by Wataru Morishige, both Verbij and Krol disappointed. Verbij did not get further than the fifth fastest time and Krol was eighth. Nevertheless, the Dutch (Verbij for Krol) still led the general classification, although the gap with the main pursuers Tatsuya Shinhama and Piotr Michalski had shrunk.

Krol eventually had to be the first to start in the 1000 meters. The distance at which he became Olympic champion last month. Partly due to a false start, he was slightly slower than Thursday, when he set a track record, 1.08.51. As a result, there were opportunities for Verbij who could lose 16 hundredths of a second, although he had to drive faster than Thursday. However, he did not succeed (1.08.92) and so Krol crowned himself world champion.

Krol started the second day of the World Sprint Championship as leader on Friday. After the first day, Laurent Dubreuil was actually at the top of the general classification. However, to his own horror, the Canadian tested positive for the corona virus on Friday and is therefore no longer in Hamar.