A look back at the 2019 Dutch World Cup Kwalificatie Toernooi

The best Dutch speed skaters competed for World cup spots last weekend in Heerenveen at the 2019 World Cup Kwalificatie Toernooi. 

By Jackob Savard
Photo: Schaats Foto's

The World Cup Kwalificatie Toernooi included every individual distances raced on the World Cup circuit from 500m to 10000m and was held from the 1st to the 3rd of November in a packed Thialf arena. 

Good competition for Roest, Bergsma and Bosker

The Netherlands will once again have high quality skaters to represent them on the long distances. Patrick Roest was, as always, the man to beat. He won the 5000m, the 10000m with a new track record and finished third on 1500m. Olympic medalist Jorrit Bergsma also had a great weekend finishing second in both the 5000m and 10000m and winning the mass start. Marcel Bosker will also be part of the team as he finished fourth in the three longer distances. Veterans Douwe de Vries and Sven Kramer as well as 21-year-old Marwin Talsma will also see World cup action this season. 

Ntab, Verbij and Nuis will lead a strong sprinting team

Dai Dai Ntab, Kai Verbij and Kjeld Nuis respectively won the 500m, 1000m and 1500m and all three also qualified for a second distance. They’ll lead a strong sprinting team composed of skaters such as Hein Otterspeer, Lennart Velema, Thomas Krol and Ronald Mulder. 

Jorien ter Mors is back

After a full year recovering from an injury, Jorien ter Mors was back in action last weekend. She won all three distances in which she took part in (500m, 1000m & 1500m). It will be interesting to see how's her form compared to international skaters such as Brittany Bowe, Vanessa Herzog and Nao Kodaira. She’ll be joined by Letitia de Jong, Michelle de Jong, Jutta Leerdam, Sanneke de Neeling, Dione Voskamp and Ireen Wust in the shorter distances.

Stellar performance by Antoinette de Jong 

Antoinette de Jong was dominant in this competition qualifying on four of the five individual events. Her best performances were second places on 1500m and 3000m. Esmee Visser won both the 3000m and 5000m and will again be a skater to watch this season. Other long distance skaters we’ll see on the World cup circuit for the Netherlands are Reina Anema, Carlijn Achtereekte, Irene Schouten and Melissa Wijfje.

For the full results, click HERE

Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter, follow our Facebook page, our Instagram account and our Twitter account for daily news and results about speed skating.