Van Ruijven and Breeuwsma crowned 2019 Dutch champions

The Dutch national championships in short track were held last weekend in Heerenveen. Lara van Ruijven and Daan Breeuwsma were crowned 2019 national champions in the Netherlands.

By Carl Savard

Photos by Bert van Lobenstein

While Saturday was a pretty calm qualifying day, the fans had plenty of action to set their teeth in on Sunday. The schedule was filled with the finals on 1500m, semis and finals on 500m and 1000m and a 3000m super final. A few well known athletes couldn’t take part in this year’s championships. Sjinkie Knegt who finished 4th in 2018 is still recovering from an injury suffered at home while Avalon Aardoom was out due to a concussion. Aardoom finished second overall last season at these championships.

Suzanne Schulting won the first distance of the day crossing the finish line of the 1500m final ahead of Selma Poutsma and Lara van Ruijven. The scenario was different on 500m though as Lara van Ruijven was able to win the main final. Yara van Kerkhof and Selma Poutsma finished 2nd and 3rd. Suzanne Schulting won the B final after a fall in the semifinal prevented her from battling in the main event. Schulting suffered another fall in the main final of the 1000m, her strongest distance on the world stage,  finishing in fifth place. Van Rujiven seized that opportunity to win a second distance finishing ahead of Selma Poutsma and Xandra Velzeboer. Yara van Kerkhof crossed the line in 4th place. Suzanne Schulting was able to climb back up in the overall ranking by winning the 3000m super final but it wasn’t enough to win the overall title. Selma Poutsma finished 2nd in this 3000m while Lara van Ruijven’s 3rd place sealed the deal for her. After winning her first individual gold medal on the World cup circuit last fall, van Rujiven gets her second Dutch title after winning it in 2015. Suzanne Schulting and Selma Poutsma finished 2nd and 3rd in the overall final ranking.

On the men’s side, veteran Daan Breeuwsma entered the competition as the reigning champion and it didn’t take long for him to show he would be a tough contender again this year. The 31-year-old athlete started his day of competition on Sunday by winning the 34 precious points awarded for a victory in the main finals. His teammates Itzhak de Laat and Dylan Hoogerwerf joined him on the 1500m podium finishing respectively  2nd and 3rd. Jasper Brunsmann climbed at the top of the podium on 500m while de Laat finished 2nd once again and Breeuwsma was 3rd. Even though we started having an idea of what the final rankings could look like, one of the younger skater in the competition decided he wasn’t done fighting despite having difficulties on the first two events. After finishing 8th on 1000m and 15th on 500m, Sven Roes finished 3rd on 1000m behind Breeuwsma and de Laat. He then went on to win the 3000m super final finishing ahead of Friso Emons and Itzhak de Laat. Daan Breeuwsma’s 4th place was enough to secure his championship title. De Laat’s constant presence on the podium got him second place overall while Sven Roes’ late awakening was good enough for third place in the final ranking.

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