Tijmen Snel as national sprint champion to World Championships

 

Tijmen Snel as national sprint champion to World Championships

 

 

Skater Tijmen Snel can call himself Dutch sprint champion since last weekend. At the NK in Heerenveen he finished after four distances (twice the 500 and twice the 1000 meters) in first place. This earned him a ticket for the World Championships in Hamar, Norway, early March.

 

It was the first time Snel won the national sprint title after finishing fifth twice. At the tournament in Heerenveen some Olympic participants were missing, including defending champion Hein Otterspeer.

 

Partly due to the loss of competitors Kjeld Nuis (injury) and Dai Dai N’tab (fall), Snel settled comfortably at the top of the standings after the first day, a place he did not relinquish on the second day.

 

Snel, who temporarily suspended his study mechanical engineering in Delft in favour of his professional skating career, was the only one to achieve a ’34’er’ on the shortest distance: 34.88 seconds.

A fortnight ago he won gold on the team sprint during the European Distances Championships. Earlier his nomination for the Olympic Games in Beijing was not honoured by the skating federation.

At the NK all-round held simultaneously in Thialf, Jeroen Janissen (student at Aerospace Engineering) finished sixth in the final ranking. He set personal bests in both the five (6.28.64) and ten kilometre events (13.33.03). (JT)

 

• Read the recent interview in Delta with Tijmen Snel: European gold for TU Delft student Tijmen Snel

 

^{Tijmen Snel in action during the European Championships Distances, where he won gold on the team sprint. (Photo: Stephan Tellier)}

Jimmy Tigges / Redacteur Sport