Dutch delight as Roest and Krol seal first World Cup wins

Roest continued his long distance winning run while Krol wrapped up the men's 1000m crown to delight the home crowd.

Roest has enjoyed an excellent 2019/20 campaign and victory in the men's 5000m on Saturday means he has now won all five long distance races he has skated in this season.

The latest of those triumphs earned Roest 120 points, bringing him to an overall total of 360 - 37 clear of Russian runner-up Danila Semerikov.

Canadian Graeme Fish finished second in Heerenveen to claim third spot overall with 306 points - just edging out his fellow countryman Ted-Jan Bloeman (292).

Krol was the only skater to finish in under 1m08s in the men's 1000m, providing him with a victory which saw him leapfrog Kai Verbij in the overall standings.

Verbij finished third in Heerenveen to seal a Dutch one-two overall, with Frenchman Laurent Dubreuil rounding off the top three.

Earlier in the day, Martina Sablikova sealed a remarkable 13th long-distance World Cup in the past 14 seasons - but she was pushed all the way by Isabelle Weidemann.

Weidemann won the season-ending women's 3000m in Heerenveen but Sablikova's fourth-placed finish saw the Czech star finish top of the overall standings by just four points.

There was also a close battle for the overall third-placed spot, with Canada's Ivanie Blondin (314) finishing narrowly clear of Czech Republic's Natalia Voronina (311). Antoinette de Jong, who was second in Heerenveen, finished fifth overall.

The women's 1000m World Cup title was won by American Brittany Bowe, who sealed the overall crown with a second-placed finish on Saturday.

She was beaten on the day by Jutta Leerdam, who claimed her first individual World Cup race win, but Bowe's overall tally of 326 points saw her end the season 70 points clear at the top. Nao Kodaira and Olga Fatkulina finished second and third, respectively.

The men's 500m on Saturday saw Japan's Tatsuya Shinhama equal a new track record as he moved to the top of the overall World Cup standings ahead of tomorrow's final races.

Shinhama's time of 34.31s equalled that set by Michel Mulder in 2013 and put him 16 points ahead of Russia's Viktor Mushtakov, leaving it all to play for on Sunday.

Vanessa Herzog won the women's 500m in 37m31s, while Nao Kodaira's third-placed finish kept her comfortably at the top of the overall standings going into tomorrow.

Sportsbeat 2020