Marijke Groenewoud (NED) crowned herself queen of the 2024 ISU European Speed Skating Championships when she collected her third gold medal with a solo finish after a powerful attack in the Mass Start on Sunday. Earlier on Sunday, Groenewoud had seized her second title, together with Irene Schouten and Joy Beune in the Team Pursuit, with Germany and Switzerland surprisingly taking silver and bronze. In between, Jutta Leerdam (NED) won her third straight European gold in the 1000m.
Marijke Groenewoud wins her third European gold of 2024 in the Mass Start in Heerenveen, Netherlands © ISU
All’s well that ends well for Dutch Team Pursuit
Despite being favorites to win the Team Pursuit, the Dutch women lined up a little nervous at the start, after two recent disqualifications. At last year’s World Championships Beune had not covered her ankles with the mandatory protective socks, and at the last World Cup in Poland in December Beune forgot to wear the mandatory transponder for timekeeping.
This time they had a meticulous preparation.
“Before the race I noticed that the other girls were extra nervous,” Beune admitted. “But they trust me, and we had triple checked everything beforehand, even with the referee, and then Rintje [Dutch national coach Rintje Ritsma] said: just enjoy.”
The home fans celebrate Netherlands' Mass Start gold at the 2024 Europeans in Heerenveen, Netherlands © ISU
Skating without an opponent in the first pairing, the Dutch girls finished their six-lap race in 2:55.70, just 1.58 outside the track record.
Coach Ritsma was content:
“If you wake up these girls in the middle of the night, they’ll still skate well together. Of course, there’s always small things we can improve. Joy was not top and neither was Irene, but Marijke was very good. For the perfect race they all have to be top. It was a solid race, but secretly I had counted on a track record.”
Germany and Switzerland faced each other in the final pairing. Ramona Härdi, Kaitlyn McGregor, Jasmin Güntert (SUI) took the initiative, leading the race up until the penultimate 200m split. However, Germany’s Josephine Schlörb, Josie Hofmann, Lea-Sophie Scholz managed to edge Switzerland out, beating their opponents by an 0.07 margin to take silver in 3:02.33, 6.63 behind the Dutch.
Germany claimed a surprise European silver in the Mass Start in Heerenveen, Netherlands © ISU
“It’s pretty unreal for now actually,” Hofmann said. “We knew we could be strong. and we performed quite well as a team on an off track, but thinking about medals… I really just wanted to have a nice clean race, and just get a little bit closer to the other teams, so it was pretty unreal.
“[The battle for bronze] was super close, and we actually had no idea where we were in the race. But I think that's good because we couldn't get too hungry for it, then sometimes you make mistakes. We just stayed clean and pushed it through to the end.”
“[Winning a medal for Germany] is really, really important. We set the goal for the Olympics. We just have to have a team there and be competitive. The German Federation puts lots of effort in.”
Switzerland snatched the bronze from fourth-placed Italy by just 0.01.
Switzerland won European Mass Start bronze by the narrowest of margins in Heerenveen, Netherlands © ISU
“We did beat the Germans in the World Cup,” McGregor said. “So that was a little bit of disappointment. But then, once we realized we're the last pair, we realized nobody else is skating [after us], we actually have a bronze medal. Then we were pretty happy.
“We've been working on the Team Pursuit in training, every single training. We knew we had a chance to do something pretty productive. We had a good run in training, and I think we worked really well together, great harmony and chemistry."
Third straight title for Leerdam
Jutta Leerdam (NED) defended her European 1000m title in superior fashion. The 25-year-old World Champion stopped the clock at 1:14.45, to keep compatriot Antoinette Rijpma-De Jong 0.59 behind.
Jutta Leerdam made it three European 1000m titles in a row in Heerenveen, Netherlands © ISU
Although it was her third straight European 1000m title, Leerdam never gets used to winning:
“You have to do it time and again, and there’s always things that can happen, a bad start like today for example, but that’s part of the game and you learn to deal with it.
“[Knowing that] it doesn’t have to be perfect, makes it difficult too. I prefer to skate with the pressure full on.”
Rijpma-De Jong didn’t want to take Leerdam’s 1000m dominance for granted either:
“I always go for first place, and today I got really close towards the end of the race. I still have to improve my first 200m, the speed doesn’t come so easy for me as it does for the real sprinters, because I’m more of an all-round skater.”
Antoinette Rijpma-De Jong took European 1000m silver behind her teammate in Heerenveen, Netherlands © ISU
As in the 500m, Vanessa Herzog (AUT) was the only non-Dutch skater on the podium, winning bronze in 1:15.74. She said:
“I knew in the 500m it would be possible, because I had really fast laps in training. Today [the 1000m bronze] was just a big surprise for me because the three Dutch [Isabel Grevelt (NED) came fourth] would be favored.”
Vanessa Herzog collected her second bronze of the 2024 Europeans in the 1000m in Heerenveen, Netherlands © ISU
Herzog had drawn a lot of confidence from Saturday’s 500m medal:
“Yesterday, I had a bad start, but I still had a fast lap, so I knew I can do it. But the last races [in the 1000m] my second lap was really bad, so I’m happy I could finish really strong.”
Groenewoud completes hattrick
After having won 3000m gold on Friday, 1500m silver on Saturday and the Team Pursuit title on Sunday morning, Marijke Groenewoud completed her golden hattrick with the Mass Start.
“Three golds and a silver, not too bad,” she smiled.
Behind Groenewoud, teammate Irene Schouten seized silver and Francesca Lollobrigida (ITA) took bronze.
Marijke Groenewoud (centre) takes European Mass Start gold ahead of Irene Schouten (left) in Heerenveen, Netherlands © ISU
The Dutch women had a plan that worked out perfectly. Schouten explained:
“We would attack in turns to try and wear out Lollobrigida. The second attack was the right one so everything worked out well.”
Groenewoud got away with German Michelle Uhrig (GER). She said:
“We got away quickly, but there were still eleven laps left. The gap was never really big, but luckily I was strong enough.”
Schouten sat in behind Laura Lorenzato (ITA), who tried to close the gap for Lollobrigida.
“I knew that Marijke would stay upfront,” Schouten said. “The Italian girl was going to empty her tank too, and Lollobrigida did not want to waste her energy to spoil her final sprint.”
Groenewoud eventually dropped Uhrig to finish solo, while Schouten and Lollobrigida also managed to overtake the German to complete the podium.
Lollobrigida said: “I knew that the Dutch girls were the strongest, and I knew that they were going to execute some tactics, so we were just following them.
For Lollobrigida, who won the European Mass Start title in 2018, it was her first international medal after giving birth to her son Tommaso. She added:
“I feel that I was growing during the weekend because I got to fifth and then fourth. I need to do more races, to get back [to my top level].”
The European Mass Start podium including Francesca Lollobrigida's son Tommaso in Heerenveen, Netherlands © ISU
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