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.
Dutch skaters Ireen Wüst and Marrit Leenstra filled two of the three podium spots for the 1,500 meters at the Winter Olympics in Gangneung on Monday. Wüst won gold with a time of 1:54:35, two tenths of a second faster than favorite Miho Takagi from Japan. Leenstra took bronze, ending 0.92 seconds behind Wüst, NOS reports.
Fourth place also went to a Dutch skater - Lotte van Beek just missed the podium, ending just one hundredth of a second behind Leenstra.
Sven Kramer is calling on the International Skating Union (ISU) to reach a sollution now that several skaters have indicated that they are considering a boycott of the European Championship all-round in Russia.
After a heartwarming reception in Assen Monday, upon their return from Sochi, the Olympic medalists were decorated in The Hague, Tuesday. Safe for Ireen Wüst and Sven Kramer, all the medalists were knighted to the Order of Oranje-Nassau.
Dutch athletes have won 17 medals for the country at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, as Sunday's 'clean sweep' saw the top four places taken up by Oranje.
Ireen Wüst and Margot Boer won silver and bronze on the 1,000 m skating, bowing to the Chinese Zhang Hong with a record time of 1:14:02.
The Dutch sports team is good for 5 gold medals in Sochi, according to Statistics agency Infostrada, who based its calculations on global tournaments.
Sven Kramer has shown this weekend that he is in a top shape. During the Dutch championships he not only won the 5 km but also impressed friend and enemy with his victory on the 10 km.
The 10 km race was between Kramer and last years champion Jorrit Bergsma. Although in March, Bergsma beat Kramer at the 10 km, at this race he had to be happy with silver. Kramer accelerated in the last four rounds with such a speed that he achieved a new track record (12.46.96) in Thialf. The old track record was from 2007 (12.49.88), also for Kramer.
