NOS Skating•
Dutch women win their first European Championship gold in team pursuit
Sanne in ‘t Hof, Evelien Vijn and Kim Talsma won the first Dutch gold of this weekend on the third and final day of the European Championships in Tomaszów, Poland.
The so-called ‘B team’ of the Netherlands was more than two seconds faster than Belgium with a time of 3:01.35. The bronze went to host country Poland.
In ‘t Hof, Vijn and Talsma had never ridden together, but came into action together in Poland because the ‘A-team’ competes at the Olympic Games in February and the skaters prefer a training block to riding the European Championship distances.
Not obvious
It was not obvious that the Dutch women would pick up the gold, since they played against Belgium, which was at full strength.
Fran Vanhoutte, Sandrine Tas and the ‘Dutch’ Isabelle van Elst started one second faster than the Dutch team. But the Netherlands eventually turned that deficit into a lead of more than two seconds.
The Golden Pursuit Team quickly noticed a click in training: ‘It went smoothly’
“I think it went really well,” In ‘t Hof said afterwards. Vijn stated that during this week’s training it quickly became apparent that this team could skate well together. “It went smoothly pretty quickly. I wanted to make the best of it today and we did that.”
Among the men, Louis Hollaar, Kars Jansman and Wisse Slendebroek managed to take silver in this section on Friday, behind Italy.
