The 2019-2020 long track speed skating season started today in Minsk, Belarus.





By Jackob Savard

Photo: ISU skating channel



The men’s and women’s team sprint as well as the women’s 3000m and the men’s 5000m were the distances raced on Day 1 in Minsk.





The Netherlands won the first team sprint events of the season

The Dutch team composed of Letitia de Jong, Michelle de Jong and Jutta Leerdam skated to victory in the ladies’ team sprint with a time of 1:29.230. It was Michelle de Jong’s first senior World cup race in career and she contributed in her country’s victory by skating a fast first lap. Strong teams from Russia and Japan finished second and third.





The Netherlands also won the men’s team sprint. They went with the same trio they used pretty much all year long last season and which led them to the World title on the distance. Ronald Mulder, Kai Verbij and Kjeld Nuis were followed by a surprising team from China who took silver and team Canada who took bronze.





Weidemann beats the Olympic champion, Roest unbeatable

After the men’s team sprint bronze, Canada added two more medals in the ladies’ 3000m which was won by Canadian Isabelle Weidemann with a time of 4:04.679. Reigning Olympic champion on the distance Carlijn Achtereekte finished half a second behind Weidemann and took silver. Ivanie Blondin from Canada took the bronze medal.





Dutch star Patrick Roest won the men’s 5000m with a track record time of 6:16.615. The 23-year-old was followed by 33-year old Dutch Jorrit Bergsma who completed the distance in 6:22.297. Completing the podium was Russian Denis Yuskov who we’ve seen racing on 1000m and 1500m in the last few years. Yuskov decided to concentrate his training towards allround for this year and we’ll see him skating the longer distances more often this season. Honorable mention to 22-year-old Canadian Graeme Fish who took fifth place on the distance beating some experimented rivals.



