World Speed Skating Championships: Day 7 - The end of Oostende 2013

The only events of the day were the marathons for each age category, scheduled to start at 12 in the afternoon. The circuit was a 1.35km road in the centre of the city. It being the last day of the Championships, the streets and even the balconies were filled with people watching.

The first race, as usual, was the junior women’s race. Skaters were in a different mode today – far more cheerful and carefree. Everyone on the line was joking, laughing and taking pictures. As the race began, a huge cheer went up. The race began at a furious pace with all the Colombians juniors at the front of the pack. The marathon is a true team effort. The sprinters will increase the pace and then drop out so that their long distance counterparts can win the race. It’s really interesting. The race was fast, though the circuit proved to be a somewhat dangerous one with multiple falls throughout the race. However, at the end of the race, it was the girl from Chinese Taipei who was victorious, sprinting to a massive lead at the finish.

Next up was the junior boys. It was a completely Colombia dominated race. There were a couple of nasty falls on the way but the podium was topped by Cujavente of Colombia followed by his teammate Andres Jimenez. Venezuela’s Sebastian Paredes won the bronze.

Senior women was erratic with 2 failed breakaways during the race. However, the Dutch group sprinted away strongly with Lollabrigida and Uting Huang of Chinese Taipei following closely. Eventually, it was Queen Lollo, as she is called, who took home another gold, followed by Monon Kamminga of the Netherlands winning the silver and Huang hanging on for the bronze.

The senior men’s race, as always, was the real nailbiter. Peter Michael of New Zealand broke away multiple times. The last time he broke away, it was along with one Colombian, one Belgian and a skater from the Netherlands. While the Belgian and Colombian fell behind with about 5 laps to go, it was the Dutch skater, Crispyn Ariens, who did the impossible. He skated powerfully away from Peter Michael to win the gold medal, almost a full minute ahead of the pack! Bart Swings, the favourite never even had a chance when he got stuck with the main group, though he did eventually won the bronze behind Michael, with a nice end sprint. It really was an incredible race. A fitting end to what had already been a brilliant world championship. Colombia ended the events at the top of the table with 32 gold medals, with Italy in second place with 5 and Belgium in third place with 4.

The race ended by 6 that evening, and now that the races were over, all that the teams looked forward to was the closing party. The party marked the end of another world championship, giving the athletes a chance to socialise and just have a good time. It was a fun night with nice music and a lot of dancing – a wonderful way for me to end my first world championship.