First major titles in career for Leerdam and Swings on the last day of the 2020 European championships

The 2020 European single distances speed skating championships ended today in Heerenveen. 

By Jackob Savard

Photo: Jaap Hop 

The 2020 single distances European championships came to an end today with the team pursuit, 1000m and mass start events. The Netherlands and Russia once again had a solid day winning five of the six titles available today.

Both team pursuit titles go to the Netherlands

The Netherlands won the ladies' and men’s team pursuit titles. Ireen Wüst, Melissa Wijfje and Antoinette de Jong were the Dutch ladies who collected the title while Patrick Roest, Marcel Bosker and Sven Kramer composed the men’s Dutch team who won. Both times, Russia finished second. Belarus and Norway respectively completed the ladies’ and men’s podium. 

European title and personal best for Leerdam

After skipping the 500m and team sprint events because of a groin Injury, Jutta Leerdam won the ladies’ 1000m with a new personal best time of 1:13.67. Russians Daria Kachanova and Yekaterina Shikhova had a good day, but it was not enough to beat the 21-year-old Dutch skater. Russian teammates got silver and bronze. 

Pavel Kulizhnikov from Russia established a new track record of 1:07.09 to claim his third European title of the weekend after his win on 500m and in the team sprint. Crowd favorites Thomas Krol and Kai Verbij finished second and third.

Shouten and Swings mass start champions

The ladies’ mass start title was decided by the final sprint. Irene Schouten won the European title just in front of Italian Francesca Lollobrigida and Dutch Melissa Wijfje.

We had to wait for the last race of the weekend to see a non-Dutch or Russian skater win a title. Belgian Bart Swings was the man who did it as he crossed the finish line in first place in the men’s mass start. It was Swings' first ever international title on the ice. Dutch veteran Arjan Stroetinga got silver while Russian Danila Semerikov took bronze. 

For our day 1 recap, click HERE

For our day 2 recap, click HERE

For the complete results, click HERE

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