Antoinette Rijpma-de Jong scored a World Cup victory over 1,500 meters for the first time in her career on Saturday. The 27-year-old figure skater has settled in Thialf with Miho Takagi and Marijke Groenewoud.
Rijpma-de Jong set a final time of 1.53.73 after a relatively flat race. That made her 0.19 seconds faster than Japan’s Takagi, who won the 1,500m last week in Stavanger at the first World Cup of the season.
Groenewoud won bronze in the skating mile for the second week in a row. The driver of Team Albert Heijn Zaanlander clocked 1.54.64, which preceded her by more than two tenths on the Kazakh Nadezhda Morozova (1.54.86).
Joy Beune finished sixth in 1.54.97, while Jutta Leerdam finished eighth. Friday’s 1,000m winner started as strong as ever. After 1,100 meters he had the fastest split time, but in the last 400 meters she collapsed. With a final lap of 33.3 seconds, she managed a final time of 1.55.65.
The Norwegian Ragne Wiklund, silver last week at home in the 1,500 meters, did not go beyond the twelfth place with 1.56.22.
Rijpma-de Jong achieved her first World Cup victory in Thialf since December 2018. Then she was the best in the 3 kilometers in Heerenveen. She won three gold medals over that distance, her only individual World Cup victories as of Saturday.
