Jutta Leerdam secures third straight victory after winning 1000m as Dutch racers continue to shine in Calgary
BySportsbeat
Published 12/12/2022 at 12:25 GMT
Jutta Leerdam continued her fine form at the speed skating World Cup in Calgary in a hugely successful day for the Netherlands, who secured three gold medals. Hein Otterspeer was also victorious in the men's 1000m, while Irene Schouten secured a Dutch hat-trick after winning the mass start final. American Mia Kilburg and compatriot Marijke Groenewoud came second and third respectively.
Jutta Leerdam
Image credit: Getty Images
Jutta Leerdam extended her perfect start to the speed skating World Cup over 1000m with a third straight victory in Calgary on a brilliant final day of action for the Netherlands.
The Dutch skater was the class of the field as she claimed victory in a time of 1:12.82, more than half a second clear of her nearest rival.
American Kimi Goetz took the silver, 0.71 seconds back, edging out Austria's Vanessa Herzog by three hundredths and worryingly for the rest of the field, Leerdam believes she can go much quicker.
"The race wasn't perfect, especially my opener, as I had a miss-stroke at the start but eventually I skated a 26.2 lap," Leerdam said. "When I saw that, I thought wow, and the speed came really easy.
"I learn every race. It doesn't need to be perfect, especially not if you win by a 0.7s margin, but I want to get the best out of it every time of course."
Her performance was matched by compatriot Hein Otterspeer in the men's 1000m, albeit in a much tighter competition.
His time of 1:07.28 was enough to edge out home favourite Laurent Dubreuil by two hundredths of a second, with fellow Canadian Antoine Gelinas-Beaulieu a further 0.02 seconds back in third.
Irene Schouten made it a hat-trick of wins for the Dutch as she won the mass start final, beating American Mia Kilburg and compatriot Marijke Groenewoud into second and third respectively.
But there was no clean sweep, with Italian Andrea Giovannini taking the win in the men's mass start, comfortably beating New Zealand's Peter Michael and Vitaliy Chshigolev of Kazakhstan.
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