Pictures from Ice Speedskating

After spending time in Germany and Poland, it was nice to be back home again. Nothing better than your own bed and your own stuff around you. However, although the ISU caravan carried onwards to Changchun in China, this didn't mean there was no speedskating going on for me. Owh no! I think this was one of the busiest weekends ever! On friday and saturday evening the Eindhoven Trofee in Eindhoven, on sunday morning the Junior Country match in Breda and sunday night travelling to Haarlem for the Kraantje Lek Tournament.

This all must sound very easy, for people who are used to major distances within their country, but let me tell you this, snow, ice and minus 8 degrees and then travelling for a few kilomters is not easy!

On friday I faced fridayevening traffic for a job interview and the Eindhoven Trofee. I had never been to the icerink in Eindhoven, but I was plesantly surprised by the icerink. It was very cold but there was hardly any wind. Quickly I changed from my highheels into my snowjacket and I was ready for the new event.

The Icerink in Eindhoven

The Eindhoven Trofee used the be a regional competition, organized by the southern skating unions of the Netherlands, but these days, it had become more and more a selection for the dutch allround championship right after christmas. So besides the Eindhoven Trophy, there was something at stake! After day one, it was very clear that TVM skater Jan Blokhuijsen would go home with this Trophy, as he won both the 500 meter event and the 5.000 meter event.

Ralph de Haan skating the 500 meter

Tossa Heesen from the Overijssel district skating in the 1.500 meter event

Koen Verweij from Team Hofmeijer won the 1.500 meter

Jan Blokhuijsen from TVM skating the last meters in the 5.000 meter

I had fun at the event and went home to work on the pictures and wait for the livestream on internet for the World Cup in Changchun, however, as this would only start at 5 am and I had already finished with all the photos of day 1, I didn't stay up and went to bed. And here I made a small mistake. After 3 hours of sleep, I had to wake up again, because of another appointment to photograph at the Windmills of Kinderdijk in the snow. We got their right in time and managed to get some nice shots, before a new snowblizzard hit the country. By the time I got home, I could barely keep my eyes open.

Windmills in the snow at Kinderdijk- the Netherlands

After a very short nap, it was time again to go to Eindhoven for the second day of the Eindhoven Trofee. Weather conditions didn't improve much at all and I was already dreading the travel back home, but first the 1.500 meter and the 3.000 meter. I think Koen Verweij didn't want Jan Blokhuijsen to go home with the Trophy and 4 wins, so he did his outmost best to win the 1.500m, which he managed. This was pretty exciting, but the 3k was also won by Jan Blokhuijsen, making the podium pictures a little bit boring as the same people on the steps almost every time.

Jan Blokhuijsen with his Eindhoven Trophy

Driving home in the snowblizzard was not much fun, but we managed to get home safe and sound. I promised myself not to stay up too long and managed to have the pictures of the 1.500 meter up before midnight. The last pictures just had to wait. I slept a couple of hours, before it was time again to travel to Breda for the Junior Country match between Netherlands and Norway. Germany was supposed to come aswell, but they were not able to make it, because of the bad weather conditions. The regional selection stepped in so the event had enough competitors. I must honoustly admit, I did not know a lot of the skaters participating in the event, maybe a few by name, but this didn't make it less fun to be there.

Henrik Fagerli Rukke from Norway, 1.000m Boys Junior C

Anne Gulbrandsen, Norway, skating 1.000m Girls Junior B

Kai Verbij from the Netherlands, 3.000 meter Boys Junior B

The young C and B juniors of Netherlands and Norway really did their outmost best and although the dutch team was stronger than the norwegians, they never gave up and kept fighting for a good race. The flower ceremony was also fun to watch, as all the kids seemed very shy to get on the podium, but I guess some of them better get used to it!

The whole Dutch Team

I had the afternoon of, before I wanted to travel to Haarlem and had some much needed time to recharge the batteries. Both of the camera as my own! I was by now already so tired, but I managed to stay awake, finish the pictures from Eindhoven and be ready in time to travel to Haarlem. By now, the roads were clear again and driving up north went smootly. Arriving in Haarlem gave me the shock of my life. What a messy terrible orange light! And so little of it. I managed to take some pretty good photographs in Eindhoven and Breda, but this would be utterly terrible! All pictures turned out bright orange and most of them unsharp. Quit the drama if you come to photograph.

Bo van der Werff skating the 3.000 meter

I went home before the flower ceremony as I could barely keep my eyes open and was glad to be back home. I hit my bed and on monday morning it turned out why I was so tired: the flu has hit me ! Archh... the last few days have been very uncomfortable with sneezing, coughing and mostly sleeping. I did manage to have all the pictures up from all three events by monday night, but didn't feel like writting a blog. Now that I'm feeling slightly better again, I thought to make one after all.

I sure hope this feeling ill will vanish before tomorrow evening, as I was planning on going to the Utrecht City Bokaal. Also an event which I'm looking forward to, but I'm still not sure if I will manage to go there. Sneezing at the start is not a good thing... We'll see!

Naomi Schläger