2012 European Speed Skating Championships

The 2012 European Speed Skating Championships was the 37th continental speed skating event for women and the 106th for men, that was held at the City Park Ice Rink in Budapest, Hungary, from 6 to 8 January 2012.[1] The competition was also a qualifying event for the 2012 World Allround Speed Skating Championships as the entry quotas were allocated according to the results of the European Championships.[2]

European Speed Skating Championships
VenueCity Park Ice Rink
Budapest, Hungary
Dates6–8 January 2012
Competitors54 from 18 nations
Medalist men
1st place, gold medalist(s) Sven Kramer  NED
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Jan Blokhuijsen  NED
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Håvard Bøkko  NOR
Medalist women
1st place, gold medalist(s) Martina Sáblíková  CZE
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Claudia Pechstein  GER
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Ireen Wüst  NED

In the absence of defending champion Ivan Skobrev, who did not participate due to an injury,[3] Dutchman Sven Kramer took the men's European title. This was his fifth victory, having won previously four consecutive European Championships between 2007 and 2010. Kramer also ran track records both in the 1500 meters and 5000 metres event, and his overall score of 156.197 is the best ever result at the City Park Ice Rink as well.[4]

In the women's competition previous year's gold medalist Martina Sáblíková retained her title, achieving her third European success in row and fourth overall. Sáblíková also set a new track record in 3000 metres with a time of 4:16.09.[5]

Further two records were beaten over the weekend, both in 500 metres. On the first day of the championships, Sáblíková's compatriot Karolína Erbanová set a new best time,[5] and a day later Konrad Niedźwiedzki of Poland ran a track record on the shortest distance.[4]

Venue edit

The competition took place at the City Park Ice Rink, an outdoor artificial skating rink situated in the downtown of Budapest. Prior to the championships, the rink went through a renovation and modernization for a fee of 4.7 billion Hungarian Forint (approximately €16 million), of which 3 billion came from the European Regional Development Fund. As a result, the main building was restored to its 19th-century look, the ice surface was expanded by 15 percent and a 210 kilometres (130 mi) embedded cooling system was laid down as well.[6] The races were held on a standard track of 400 meters with outer curves of 29 meters and inner curves of 25 meters radii. Both racing lanes were 4 meters wide, with an additional inside training track of the similar width.[2]

Participating nations edit

A provisional list of competitors and staff had to be presented until 19 December 2011, while the final deadline of applications for the European Championships was closed on 3 January 2012. Every European member federation of the International Skating Union (ISU), whose racer met the qualification criteria were eligible to delegate one participant to the event, and, according to the rules of the ISU,[7] the following nations had the right to enter additional competitors in virtue of their results in the previous continental event:[2]

Eventually 54 competitors from 18 nations registered officially for the championships, not including the substitutes, in the following distribution:[8]

Although registered for the event, Kaitlyn McGregor from Switzerland and Joel Eriksson from Sweden did not participate at the European Championships.

Events edit

Schedule edit

5 January
Thursday
6 January
Friday
7 January
Saturday
8 January
Sunday
Team leaders meeting
Opening draw
Opening ceremony
500 metres women
3000 metres women
Drawing for Saturday’s distances
500 metres men
1500 metres women
5000 metres men
Drawing for Sunday’s distances
1500 metres men
5000 metres women
10000 metres men
Award ceremony

Women's competition edit

The women's European Championship were held over three days, with the 500 metres and the 3000 metres event in the first day, followed by the 1500 metres event on the second day. Skaters were awarded points according to their times, and the twelve best placed competitors after the second day were eligible to participate in the 5000 metres closing event on the last day of the championship.

The first fourteen skaters earned a spot for their countries for the 2012 World Allround Championships, which means that the Netherlands got four, Russia, Germany Norway and Poland three and the Czech Republic one place.

The entries for the 2013 European Championships were also determined using the results of the European Championships. Countries with at least three skaters in the first twelve earned four entry positions (Netherlands), countries with at least two skaters in the first sixteen earned three quotas (Czech Republic, Germany, Norway, Poland, Russia), and countries with at least one skater in the first twenty earned two places for the next continental championship (Austria, Belgium). All other European ISU members have the right to delegate one skater, subject to the qualifying time limits are met.

Points evolution and overall result edit

Rank[13] Athlete Country 500 m 3000 m 1500 m 5000 m Behind
  Martina Sáblíková   Czech Republic 41.790 (14) 84.471 (4) 125.684 (1) 169.922 (1) 0.00
  Claudia Pechstein   Germany 40.670 (5) 83.955 (1) 126.861 (4) 172.312 (2) 2.39
  Ireen Wüst   Netherlands 40.210 (2) 83.975 (2) 126.095 (1) 172.454 (3) 2.59
4 Linda de Vries   Netherlands 41.330 (9) 85.563 (7) 127.129 (6) 173.656 (4) 3.74
5 Diane Valkenburg   Netherlands 41.560 (11) 85.108 (6) 126.978 (5) 173.782 (5) 3.86
6 Yuliya Skokova   Russia 40.400 (3) 84.863 (5) 126.589 (3) 174.805 (6) 4.89
7 Natalia Czerwonka   Poland 41.220 (8) 84.455 (3) 127.338 (7) 174.956 (7) PB 5.04
8 Olga Graf   Russia 42.080 (15) 86.426 (13) 129.069 (11) 176.323 (8) 6.41
9 Annouk van der Weijden   Netherlands 41.130 (6) 85.936 (11) 128.652 (9) 176.684 (9) 6.77
10 Isabell Ost   Germany 42.110 (16) 85.885 (10) 129.778 (14) 177.289 (10) 7.37
11 Katarzyna Woźniak   Poland 41.590 (12) 86.320 (12) 129.506 (12) 178.401 (11) 8.48
12 Hege Bøkko   Norway 41.480 (10) 85.878 (9) 128.888 (10) 180.483 (12) 10.57
13 Yekaterina Lobysheva   Russia 40.620 (4) 85.653 (8) 127.656 (8)
14 Ida Njåtun   Norway 41.200 (7) 86.701 (14) 129.764 (13)
15 Karolína Erbanová   Czech Republic 39.870 (1) 86.851 (15) 130.487 (15)
16 Anna Rokita   Austria 42.320 (18) 87.215 (16) 131.008 (16)
17 Luiza Złotkowska   Poland 42.220 (17) 88.165 (19) 131.525 (17)
18 Mari Hemmer   Norway 41.730 (13) 87.791 (17) 131.814 (18)
19 Nele Armée   Belgium 43.560 (21) 88.891 (20) 132.494 (19)
20 Bente Kraus   Germany 43.070 (19) 87.878 (18) 132.641 (20)
21 Tatyana Mikhailova   Belarus 43.580 (22) 90.873 (21) 135.369 (21)
22 Ágota Tóth   Hungary 43.290 (20) 91.760 (22) 136.906 (22)
23 Sara Bak   Denmark 44.810 (23) 92.321 (23) 137.841 (23)

Men's competition edit

The men's event took place on Saturday and Sunday, with the 500 metres and the 5000 metres race at the first day and the 1500 and 10,000 meters final race in the second day. After the first day, the best 24 out of the 29 skaters got the change to participate in the 5000 meters event, while the best 12 competitors after three events took part in the 10,000 meters race.

According to the ISU rules, the fourteen best placed skaters won for their country an entry spots for the 2012 Allround World Championships. Based on the final result, the Netherlands earned four places for the World event, Norway and Poland got two, and Belgium, France, Germany, Latvia and Russia got one each.

The places for the 2013 Allround European Championships were also distributed using the classification of the European Championships. Countries with at least three skaters in the first twelve earned four spots (Netherlands), countries with at least two skaters in the first sixteen earned three (Norway and Poland), and countries with at least one skater in the first twenty earned two starting places (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Russia). All other European ISU members have got one spot, subject to the time limits set are met.

Points evolution and overall result edit

Rank[17] Athlete Country 500 m 5000 m 1500 m 10000 m Behind
  Sven Kramer   Netherlands 37.770 (12) 76.952 (2) 114.945 (2) 156.197 (1) TR 0.00
  Jan Blokhuijsen   Netherlands 36.930 (3) 76.579 (1) 114.889 (1) 156.513 (2) 0.32
  Håvard Bøkko   Norway 37.250 (5) 77.310 (3) 116.093 (4) 158.234 (3) 2.04
4 Koen Verweij   Netherlands 37.730 (10) 77.872 (7) 116.345 (5) 158.644 (4) 2.45
5 Alexis Contin   France 37.800 (13) 77.608 (5) 116.801 (7) 159.093 (5) 2.95
6 Haralds Silovs   Latvia 37.460 (6) 77.599 (4) 116.092 (3) 159.261 (6) PB 3.07
7 Sverre Lunde Pedersen   Norway 38.040 (17) 78.504 (9) 116.794 (6) 159.874 (7) 3.68
8 Denis Yuskov   Russia 38.460 (23) 78.649 (10) 117.025 (8) 160.221 (8) 4.03
9 Ted-Jan Bloemen   Netherlands 37.840 (14) 77.667 (6) 118.193 (12) 160.634 (9) 4.44
10 Bart Swings   Belgium 38.810 (25) 79.143 (12) 117.836 (10) 160.793 (10) PB 4.60
11 Jan Szymański   Poland 37.480 (7) 78.241 (8) 117.091 (9) 161.153 (11) PB 4.96
12 Zbigniew Bródka   Poland 36.900 (2) 79.506 (16) 118.166 (11) 162.393 (12) 6.20
13 Konrad Niedźwiedzki   Poland 36.890 (1) 79.152 (13) 118.458 (13)
14 Patrick Beckert   Germany 38.560 (24) 79.082 (11) 118.775 (14)
15 Bram Smallenbroek   Austria 37.750 (11) 79.819 (18) 118.965 (15)
16 Kristian Reistad Fredriksen   Norway 37.510 (9) 79.252 (14) 118.982 (16)
17 Benjamin Macé   France 37.480 (7) 79.782 (17) 119.048 (17)
18 Luca Stefani   Italy 37.890 (15) 79.495 (15) 119.435 (18)
19 Sergey Gryaztsov   Russia 38.350 (22) 80.388 (21) 119.964 (19)
20 Marco Cignini   Italy 38.310 (20) 80.177 (20) 120.167 (20)
21 Moritz Geisreiter   Germany 39.330 (26) 79.976 (19) 120.522 (21)
22 Vitaly Mikhailov   Belarus 38.340 (21) 80.484 (22) 120.734 (22)
23 Milan Sáblík   Czech Republic 38.240 (19) 81.008 (24) 121.324 (23)
24 Ferre Spruyt   Belgium 39.460 (27) 81.598 (26) 121.598 (24)
25 Simen Spieler Nilsen   Norway 38.170 (18) 80.974 (23)
26 Tommi Pulli   Finland 37.140 (4) 81.590 (25)
27 Pavel Baynov   Russia 38.000 (16) 81.625 (27)
28 Martin Hänggi   Switzerland 40.320 (28) 83.300 (28)
29 Marian Ion   Romania 920.000 (DSQ) 963.452 (29)

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ "Hungary's hosting European Speed Skating Championships". Essent ISU European Speed Skating Championships 2012 official website. 23 September 2011. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
  2. ^ a b c "Announcement" (PDF). Essent ISU European Speed Skating Championships 2012 official website. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
  3. ^ "Tizennyolc ország versenyzőit várják a budapesti Eb-re" (in Hungarian). Nemzeti Sport Online. 3 January 2012. Retrieved 9 January 2012.
  4. ^ a b "Results: European Allround 2012". Speed Skating News. Retrieved 9 January 2012.
  5. ^ a b "Results:European Allround 2012". Speed Skating News. Retrieved 9 January 2012.
  6. ^ "Kinyit a Városligeti Műjégpálya" (in Hungarian). hir24.hu. 13 December 2011. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
  7. ^ "Special Regulations and Technical Rules – Speed Skating and Short Track Speed Skating" (PDF). International Skating Union (ISU). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-02-04. Retrieved 6 January 2012. Rule 208, paragraph 5c: Subject to paragraph 3 of this Rule, the maximum entry quota for each Member in the regional qualifying event is four (4) Ladies and four (4) Men, with exceptions as stated below. The entry quotas for each Member will be determined according to the results in the preceding qualifying event as follows: Members without Skaters among the 20 best: 1 Competitor; Members with at least 1 Skater among the 20 best: 2 Competitors; Members with at least 2 Skaters among the 16 best: 3 Competitors; Members with at least 3 Skaters among the 12 best: 4 competitors.
  8. ^ "Final Entries" (PDF). Essent ISU European Speed Skating Championships 2012 official website. 3 January 2012. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
  9. ^ "Result 500m Ladies". International Skating Union. 6 January 2012. Retrieved 7 January 2012.
  10. ^ "Result 3000m Ladies". International Skating Union. 6 January 2012. Retrieved 7 January 2012.
  11. ^ "Result 1500m Ladies". International Skating Union. 7 January 2012. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
  12. ^ "Result 5000m Ladies". International Skating Union. 8 January 2012. Retrieved 9 January 2012.
  13. ^ "Classification Ladies". International Skating Union. 8 January 2012. Retrieved 9 January 2012.
  14. ^ "Result 500m Men". International Skating Union. 7 January 2012. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
  15. ^ "Result 5000m Men". International Skating Union. 7 January 2012. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
  16. ^ a b "Result 1500m Men". International Skating Union. 8 January 2012. Retrieved 10 January 2012.
  17. ^ "Classification Men". International Skating Union. 9 January 2012. Retrieved 10 January 2012.

External links edit