The Netherlands and Russia get the first wins of the European Championships

The 2020 European speed skating championships started today in Heerenveen, the Netherlands.

By Jackob Savard

Photo: Schaats Foto’s

The men’s and women’s 1500m and team sprints were raced on the first day of the 2020 single distances European speed skating championships. The Netherlands and Russia both got two wins to start the competition.

Dutch get both wins on 1500m

The ladies’ 1500m European champion title was won by Ireen Wüst. The 33-year-old Olympic champion skated a time of 1:54.88 to beat Russians Evgeniia Lalenkova and Yekaterina Shikhova.

Dutch Thomas Krol took the European title in the men’s 1500m with his time of 1:43.67. Russian Denis Yuskov and Dutch Patrick Roest finished second and third.

Team sprint goes to Russia

Russia won the ladies’ team sprint in front of the Netherlands and Poland. In the men’s team sprint, Russians also won but this time it was in front of the Norwegians and Swiss skaters. Olivier Grob, Livio Wenger and Christian Oberbichler won the first ever European championship medal for Switzerland.

For the detailed results, click HERE

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