Tas & Swings on top in Geisingen

Belgian Sandrine Tas and Bart Swings both representing Powerslide won the overall ranking of the 2019 Arena Geisingen International held in Germany last weekend.

By Jackob Savard
Photo: Thomas Wendt (@freddyrace)

This season’s third European cup was the always popular Arena Geisingen International. This classical event is held in one of the best, if not the best, speed skating track in the world. Stars of the sport such as Elton de Souza, Bart Swings, Daniel Niero, Diogo Marreiros, Sandrine Tas, Mareike Thum and many others competed in the 200m Dobbin sprint, 500m, a points race an an elimination race.


Sandrine Tas dominates
The four distances of the ladies’ competition were won by a skater representing Powerslide, Belgian Sandrine Tas won three of them and easily won the overall ranking. The only distance she didn’t win was the 500m as she finished second just behind her Italian teammate Giorgia Bormida. In the overall ranking, Argentina’s Rocio Berbel finished second, Germany’s Mareike Thum third and Giorgia Bormida fourth.

Bart Swings wins the men’s competition

Bart Swings from Powerslide won the overall ranking of this third leg of the European cup. Helped by his teammates Felix Rijhnen and Thimothy Loubineaud, Bart Swings managed to win the points race and to finish second in the elimination race. He also got decent results in the sprint distances. France’s Elton de Souza finished second overall with two third places on Saturday. Portuguese Diogo Marreiros who won last week’s European cup, was the strongest long distances skater of the weekend as he won the elimination race and finished second in the points race. He had weaker results in the sprint events than Swings and de Souza and finished third overall.

Guzman and Albrecht won the sprint events
Johan Guzman from Venezuela and Simon Albrecht from Germany were strong in the sprint distances. Guzman was the only skater to race his 200m Dobbin sprint below fourteen seconds in the final and won the event while Albrecht finished second. The next day, Albrecht won the 500m just ahead of Guzman.

Stoddard, Suttels and Tinson top junior skaters
Corinne Stoddard from the United States, who’s also a short track speed skater, won every distances of the junior ladies competition. In the men’s races, Belgian Jason Suttels was too strong in the long distances while the American Sabien Tinson dominated the sprints.

The next major speed skating event is the Trophée des 3 pistes that will take part next week in France.

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