Groenewoud Wins 3,000m – Coach Vindicated

No one could beat Joy Beune in the 3,000 meters so far this season: whenever she rode the distance, she won it. Until this Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OKT) – which produced another big surprise on day two. Although Beune, as the venerated ‘queen of the Games’, rode her best time ever in Thialf (03:56:81) on Saturday, she was still defeated. The winner of the direct duel in the last stage was Marijke Groenewoud – a skater who has mainly stood out this season due to her variable performances. She skated a personal record: 03:54:74.

Above all, Groenewoud’s victory proved her coach Jillert Anema right, the man behind Irene Schouten’s three gold medals in Beijing four years ago. De Fries Anema (70) is known in the skating world as extremely headstrong, if not recalcitrant. A reputation he lived up to in the run-up to the OKT by having the skaters of his team AH Zaanlander follow a different training program than the other teams: long training camps on the bike, only returning to the ice relatively shortly before competitions. The World Cup competitions considered very important by the KNSB skating association — “bare-butt competitions”, according to Anema on Saturday in the catacombs of Thialf — were only taken half seriously.

There was a different route for all-rounder Merel Conijn, who finished third on Saturday: she skipped three of the four World Cup competitions. That provided her with better preparation for the OKT, Anema reasoned: less travel, less competition stress. Moreover, Anema refused to discuss an ‘alternative route’, as he said in early December NRC: “It is the normal route. The rest choose an alternative route.”Marijke Groenewoud rode all the races this season, but finished twelfth and fourteenth in the first two World Cup races in North America in the 3,000 meters – “above average weak”, in the words of Anema.

Still, it worked, that alternative route. In the results of the 3,000 meters, Anema’s skaters occupied places one, three and four on Saturday. Winner Groenewoud qualified for the Games, Beune is practically certain of a ticket. Number three Conijn can, if everything goes well, also go to Milan. Bente Kerkhoff, also from Anema’s stable, did not earn a ticket for the Games as number four, but he did impress with a very fast time: just like the top three, under four minutes.

‘Sweat between your buttocks’

Beune, who was beaten by Groenewoud, was mainly relieved afterwards, she said. As a big favorite for the Games, she had suffered terribly from nerves beforehand: “Really not normal. This is the scariest thing I have ever done.” Although staying calm was the motto, she had had “a shitty night”: “Woke up every hour with sweat between your buttocks.”

Beune did not consider the fact that she had been defeated by Groenewoud to be the biggest disaster – the most important thing was that as number two she had almost certainly qualified for the Games. Just like Groenewoud, Beune will also ride the 1,500 and 5,000 meters in the coming days, but with this ride, she said, she had completed “the most difficult distance”. “So that takes away quite a few nerves.”

The triumphant coach Anema did not want to prove his point too ostentatiously afterwards. Yes, he approaches it differently, but his unique route is now “a proven recipe”. He thought Groenewoud’s performance was “admirable” and called her “a winner”, but was also critical: due to her past as a marathon skater, she is still too “focused on her opponents” instead of on her lap times. “That is an area for improvement.”

Anema said, he always uses that critical attitude anyway – with all his skaters. “I’m not optimistic, my feet have to be on the ground. That euphoric feeling is of no use to you.” Yet he had to admit that Groenewoud, alongside Beune, had become favorite for gold in the 3,000 meters in Milan due to her victory in one go – just like Irene Schouten four years ago.

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