Jutta Leerdam dominates at the Junior world cup #1

The future of long track speed skating competed in Inzell for the Junior world cup last weekend.

By Jackob Savard

Photo: Schaats Foto’s

Jutta Leerdam was dominant last weekend at the first Junior world cup of the season winning four gold medals in four distances. She also participated in a new world record. The reigning junior world champion is on fire! In the men’s competition, the Asian athletes were dominant with Koreans and Japaneses on every podiums. Here are the podiums on all the distances.

1000m

Day 1 started with Jutta Leerdam’s victory in the 1000m. The 2017 world junior champion started her season well with a fast time of 1:17.02. Two other Dutch skaters completed the podium as Joy Beune and Elisa Dul finished second and third. In the men’s competition, the Korean Seon Kyo Jeong won it and was followed by two skaters from Japan, Shuta Matsuzu and Torai  Ishikawa.

3000m

Sterre Jonkers from the Netherlands was the fastest in the ladies 3k. Joy Beune collected her second silver medal of the day and Russia’s Karina Akhmetova got the bronze. Hae Young from Korea, Francesco Betti from Italy and Aleksandr Podolskii from Russia stepped on the men’s podium.

Team sprint

The women’s team sprint event was dominated by the Dutch. They raced the new world junior record in the distance and beat Russia by almost 3 seconds. Japan finished third. On the men’s side the Japanese team was the fastest while Russia and Korea had to settle for second and third place.


500m

Jutta Leerdam added the gold medal on 500m to her 1000m and team sprint victories! Her teammate Femke Beuling finished second and Kurumi Inagawa from Japan finished third. Torai Ishikawa from Japan was the fastest men of the distance. Ruslan Zakharov from Russia, who just made the switch from short track to long track, got the second place. It will be interesting to see how the Sochi olympics relay champion will do on the 400m track. Samuli Suimalainen from Finland took the bronze.

1500m

Leerdam did it again on 1500m winning her fourth medal of the weekend. Elisa Dul and Karina Akhmetova completed the women’s top 3. Hae Young Lee and Do Hyung Lee from Korea were the fastest in the men’s category. Italian Francesco Betti took the third step of the podium.

Mass start

Elisa Dul from the Netherlands and Do Hyung Lee from Korea won the first mass start of the junior season.

It is interesting to see the future of long track speed skating compete in these events! Who are you the most excited to see access the senior level?

The next Junior world cups will be raced on the 27 and 28 of January in Innsbruck and from March 2nd to the 4th in Salt Lake City. The Junior world championships will also be held in Salt Lake City the next week on March 9 to 11.

For the full results of the competition, click HERE