Matching the monster score at last year’s World Short Track Championships was, in all honesty, an almost impossible task in Ahoy, but the sporting achievements of the Dutch shorttrackers (two individual silver medals and relay gold for the women) were dwarfed by the overwhelming and bombastic show put on in the Rotterdam ice palace over the past three days. The national coach demanded all or nothing from his athletes on Sunday. “Once everything, three times nothing,” sounded from Niels Kerstholt’s mouth.
Thanks to the women’s gold in the relay, most fans left Ahoy on Sunday evening with a good feeling. With the bright light shows, hard beats and excellent atmosphere, Ahoy was a party. Nevertheless, true sports fans will have been disappointed to see what took place in Rotterdam this weekend. For the Netherlands, the World Cup will mainly go down in the books as one of missed opportunities. The fall of Xandra Velzeboer in a promising position in the mixed relay, the penalty (500 metres) and broken ankle (1000 metres) of Suzanne Schulting, the country’s hope in the men’s Jens van ‘t Wout who, after silver in the 1500 metres, did not reach any A-finals and fell again at the moment he was trying to lead the relay to a medal. With silver twice and the women’s team gold on the relay, it became the worst Dutch crop since the 2018 World Cup.
Can happen, that’s shorttrack. A sport that cannot be predicted and where the best does not always cross the line winning. Still, the Dutch team seemed weighed down by the pressure of a full Rotterdam ice palace this weekend. National coach Niels Kerstholt hoped the energy and attention would give his athletes wings. “We talked about that beforehand, we wanted to use that to our advantage,” the selector said. “It can turn to your advantage, but that doesn’t mean it works out. Last year it always fell the right way, now it doesn’t. Then we were very dominant, this year the field was even bigger and stronger. That has changed, but I don’t want to blame the environment. When your team wants to perform so badly, something can always happen.”
