It can be said that anyone who gets the third fastest time at a certain distance in Group B at a World Cup will surprise him. But that’s not how Canadian skater Ted-Jan Bloemen works.
“That’s how I see it,” explains Bloemen, 36, “you should never surprise yourself. You must always strive for the highest and believe that it is possible. If you don’t, you start to doubt yourself and such a drive, and it should never happen.”
The Calgary Olympic Oval has already been sold out this weekend. But during Group B, the second level of the World Cup, there is less interest for skaters and less hustle and bustle in the arena.
Those who stuck were rewarded with a mighty ten-kilometer race by the Canadian veteran.
In 2005, he took part in NK distances as then-Dutch. Bloemen has been competing for Canada since November 2014, with an Olympic victory over the ten-kilometer mark in 2018.
Bloemen fell short of schedule every round when Nils van der Poel set the world record at the February Olympics. His coach Bart Schouten had already announced that this could happen quickly, but the time record could not be set aside from the first laps.
Bloemen looked ready to advance to 9,200 meters from Van der Poel’s 12:30:74. He was consistently one to two seconds short of the world record plan in a straight race, but where Van der Poel finally managed to accelerate, Bloemen didn’t succeed: 12:33:75.
“I had the world record in my head this week”
“Nils did a few laps of 28 there. With three laps left, I looked at the scoreboard and saw that I needed to go to the low 29ers, but in the end I didn’t have it. I couldn’t bring him down.”
So it didn’t surprise him that Van der Poel came this close to his record. “I was a little confused as the training went on all week. The tours came very easily.”
Also, Bloemen needed to fix something. A week ago, Bloemen wanted to show himself at five kilometers, but after two false starts, it was all over. He deliberately did the first to let the ice dry a little more after he paused the wiping. In a split second, the starting umpire thought Bloemen wasn’t standing still.
A decision that Bloemen absolutely cannot agree with. This disappointment took him up to ten kilometers. “Of course I was angry. Last week I wanted to show you how good I am.
2007: Kramer dusts WR from frustration
In his failed world record attempt, Bloemen almost repeated what Sven Kramer did on the Calgary ice more than fifteen years ago: he set a world record out of utter disappointment.
Italian Enrico Fabris snatched the five-kilometer world record from Kramer on November 10, 2007, in Salt Lake City. Kramer missed his chance to develop his best time, Fabris made good use of it.
Weighing heavily from his toes to his top and back, Kramer took more than four seconds to set the world record a week later.
6:03.21 was not cured until ten years later. Through flowers.
“Preparing for that race (01/06/86, editor’s note) I looked back five kilometers under 6.10. To find out: how do you do, how do you divide? I watched this Kramer ride a lot too.”
The comparison with Kramer hadn’t even crossed his mind last week, but Bloemen agrees. It makes him proud. “Because Kramer’s five kilometers was one of the most beautiful races ever, a great world record.”
“They are not cold enough”
When Kramer broke his record, Calgary was still battling Salt Lake City for the title of fastest ice in the world. And though it still hangs on the giant banners on the wall, Calgary lost that war of the ages.
Freezers can no longer cool 35-year-old tubes under ice as they used to.
“The ice isn’t hard enough, they just can’t get cold enough to set a world record here. But it was a very good race, I was close,” Bloemen sums up. “I think I should be very happy with that.”
Source: NOS
I’m George Gonzalez, a professional journalist and author at The Nation View. With more than 5 years of experience in the field, I specialize in covering sports news for various print media outlets. My passion for writing has enabled me to craft stories that capture the attention of readers all over the world.
