This winter's first skating marathon on natural ice will happen in Haaksbergen on Monday night. The ice on skating club IJSCH's rink was between 4 and 5 centimeters thick on Monday morning, thick enough for a marathon, national skating union KNSB announced on Twitter.
The marathon will start at 7:00 p.m. for women and 8:00 p.m. for men. Last year Simon Schouten and Manon Kamminga won the season's first skating marathon on natural ice, NU.nl reports.
A 74-year-old Dutch man died after an unfortunate fall while ice skating in Belgium last week. The man landed on his head and fell through the ice, ANP reports.
The incident happened in nature reserve Asserbroekse Meersen near Bruges. Bystanders managed to get him out of the icy water quickly, but he sustained serious injuries in the fall.
The man was rushed to hospital in critical condition. He later passed away there, the police confirmed on Monday.
A skater was rescued from the icy waters of the Langeraarse Plassen in Ter Aar on Sunday some 40 minutes after he fell through the thin ice, RTL Nieuws reports.
The man was rescued by divers from the fire department, a police officer and a bystander. He was rushed to hospital. Paramedics examined the rescuers at the scene. They were unharmed.
Christoph van Ingen from Oostzaan took a bizarre photo while skating on a ditch in his neighborhood on Thursday - a kingfisher bird perfectly frozen in the ice.
"We saw something blue in the ice and stopped to see what it was", Van Ingen said to RTL Nieuws. He took a photo with his phone and posted it on Instagram.
Numerous skating enthusiasts braved the cold, and possibly thin ice, to go skating on the Amsterdam canals on Friday. The Prinsengracht was particularly popular, with dozens of skaters spotted on the canal.
Two skaters fell through too thin ice on the Prinsengracht in Amsterdam on Thursday. One managed to get out of the water himself, the other had to be rescued. Bob Maas, the unofficial ice master of the Dutch capital, thinks that the ice on the canals will be thick enough to skate on safely over the weekend, Het Parool reports.
A daredevil skater was spotted on the Keizergracht in Amsterdam on Thursday. Despite some Amsterdam canals being closed to boating traffic since Tuesday to promote ice forming, the ice on the canals is still not thick enough to skate on safely, Waternet warns.
"It's not thick enough yet. People are responsible for themselves, but think logically about it", a Waternet spokesperson said to RTL Nieuws. If you do go out on the ice, be extremely careful.
The icy weather currently in the Netherlands means that skating enthusiasts can enjoy the natural ice at numerous ice skating clubs throughout the country. One skating enthusiast used a drone to film a beautiful video of skaters enjoying the natural ice rink of skating club De Vennen in Noord-Brabant.
"We have five centimeters of ice", Jan van de Wiel of De Vennen said to Omroep Brabant. "It is beautiful for natural ice. The free nature. Enjoy the sun rising. The outside air and the wind. You have to overcome all these factors on natural ice."
Emergency services pulled a skater out of the freezing water on Middelland in Hank on Wednesday morning after he fell through the thin ice. The 75-year-old man from Sleeuwijk in Noord-Brabant was rushed to hospital in a critical condition, where he later passed away, police said in a statement.
The man was skating on Gat van Loopgauw, on the edge of nature reserve De Biesbosch, when the accident took place. Passersby saw him in the water and called the emergency services just after 10:30 a.m.
This year's first ice skating marathon on natural ice will be held in Haaksbergen on Wednesday evening. Willem Hut of the skaters union KNSB approved the ice rink in the Overijssel town on Tuesday, Het Parool reports.
The ice rink of skating club IJSCH from Haaksbergen has the required thickness of at least 3 centimeters in all places. The Haaksbergen club competes almost every winter in the battle to host the fist marathon on natural ice. This is the sixth time Haaksbergen wins since 2000.
Amsterdam water authority Waternet started closing canals to boating traffic on Tuesday, to give the thin layer of ice on the canals opportunity to grow thick enough that skaters can get out onto the canals.
Waternet is also closing locks and switching off pumping station, so that the water flows more slowly and ice can form more easily.
Tuesday will be another icy cold day in the Netherlands, according to Weeronline. Maximum temperatures will hover around freezing, but a strong wind will make it feel much colder, the weather service warns.
With icy weather in the Netherlands this week, the Dutch fire department issued a statement warning skating enthusiasts to be extra careful when deciding whether or not to take on the natural ice.
"Often there is skating where nobody knows how thick the ice is", the fire department warns. "Are you in doubt? Don't take any risks. If you do skate, make sure you have good safety equipment. Then the fire department doesn't have to respond for you."
There is not yet enough ice in the Amsterdam canals to close them to boating traffic, Waternet announced on Monday. The canal manager will check again on Tuesday whether measures can be taken to make sure that skaters can skate on the canals.
Waternet also checked every day over the weekend whether there was enough ice on the canals. On Sunday a spokesperson told the Telegraaf that "there is already ice here and there".
Kjeld Nuis has conquered his second gold medal of the Winter Games on the 1000 meters, the eighth Dutch gold at this year's Olympics. With a time of 1 minute and 7.95 seconds, the Dutchman was just fast enough to best Norwegian Havard Lorentzen who took silver.
The time difference between first and second place was a shocking 4 hundredths of a second. The South Korean Tae-Yun Kim took the bronze.
With freezing temperatures hitting the Netherlands in the coming days, Amsterdam skating enthusiasts are hopeful that they may have a chance to get out onto the canals again. The last time the canals froze enough for skating, was in 2012, Het Parool reports.
Short tracker Suzanne Schulting won the Olympic title in the 1,000 meters - the first Dutch short track skater to win gold at the Olympic Games. Silver went to Canadian Kim Boutin, and bronze went to Italian skater Arianna Fontana, NOS reports.
Schulting had an amazing finale. She started in second position, but quickly took the lead by overtaking Boutin. After that she did not suffer from the pushing and pulling behind her, and stayed in first place until the end.
"I just started skating and stayed on one. I really still can't believe it", an overjoyed Schultin told NOS.
TeamNL added two more medals to its collection at the Winter Olympics in South Korea on Wednesday, both in the team pursuit. The women's team won silver, and the men won bronze, NOS reports.
Ireen Wust, Marrit Leenstra and Antoinette de Jong broke a Dutch record in the race ending with a time of 2:55:48, but still had to settle for Silver. The Japanese skaters won gold with an Olympic record time of 2:53:89 - only 1:58 ahead of the Dutch. Bronze went to the United States.
The Netherlands' women short track skating team won bronze in the relay at the Winter Olympics in South Korea on Tuesday. The Dutch team won the B-final, but still managed to snatch bronze in the A-final due to Canada and China being disqualified, NOS reports.
The team consisted of Jorien ter Mors, Yara van Kerkhof, Suzanne Shculting and Lara van Ruijven. They broke a world record in the B-final wit a time of 4:03:471, according to the broadcaster.
The Netherlands is in for icy cold weather from the weekend, Weeronline expects. From Friday night, minimum temperatures will drop to between -5 and -8 degrees Celsius in large parts of the country. After the weekend some places may even see nighttime temperatures below -10.
Freezing air blown in from Siberia by a fairly strong east to northeasterly wind will turn the current cold nighttime temperatures to freezing by the weekend, according to the weather servuce. This can cause minimums as low as -12 degrees on Monday and Tuesday, with windchill dropping that to -15 degrees.
With a sensational race, skater Esmee Visser won gold in the 5 kilometers at her first ever Olympic Games on Thursday. She is also only the second Dutch woman to win the longest distance, after Yvonne van Gennip, NOS reports.
"Really great, I have no words for it", Visser said in a first reaction to her Olympic title.
Dutch skater, and title defender, Jorrit Bergsma came in second place in the men's 10 thousand meters at the Olympic Games in South Korea on Thursday. Dutch-Canadian Ted-Jan Bloemen won gold, skating for the Canadian team. Third place went to Italian Nicola Tumolero, NOS reports.
Bloemen won with a time of 12:39:77. Bergsma followed with 12:44:99. "I've never before skated this fast, but Bloemen skated a great race", Bergsma said in reaction to his silver medal.
Dutch speed skating coach Jillert Anema was reprimanded for attempted match fixing during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sotsji. Four years ago he received an official warning from Maurits Hendriks - then the chief of the Dutch Olympic Team's mission - for violating Olympic values, the Volkskrant reports.
Skater Jorien ter Mors won a gold medal on the 1,000 meters at the Winter Olympics in South Korea on Wednesday. She finished with an Olympic record time of 1:13:56. Silver and bronze went to Japanese skaters Nao Kodaira and Miho Takagi, NOS reports.
"I am so happy, it was simply a perfect race", Ter Mors said after her win.
This is not Ter Mors' first Olympic gold. Four years ago she won the Olympic title on the 1,500 meters in Sotsji. She will also be racing the 500 meters on Sunday.
