Thomas Krol lost his chances of a medal in the NK sprint due to a fall in the second 500 meters, but due to a win in the second 1,000 meters, he still finished fourth in the final classification.
In disbelief, Krol looked at his skates on Sunday after the 500 meters. Just before that, he had caught the tip of his left skate in the ice, sliding over the finish line on his bottom.
“It is something that bothered me more often during training, but this is the first time that it has happened in a competition”, said the 28-year-old from Deventer about his fall on the last straight.
“I’ve researched what could be wrong with my irons before and I also compared them to my previous pair, which went well. I couldn’t find anything crazy about them and that’s why I kept riding them. But after today I’m leaning towards a few new irons. ”
–
–
–
–
Thomas Krol realizes after his crash in the 500 meters that he has to miss the podium. (Photo: Pro Shots)
Revenge on the 1,000 meters
Remarkably enough, Krol did not even set the worst time in the 500 meters with 36.28; Thijs Govers (36.35) and Mika van Essen (36.40) were both slower. But the Jumbo-Visma skater lost second place in the rankings due to his fall and lost sight of a medal.
“After the fall, it was also quite painful with walking, but luckily I didn’t have much trouble on the ice at the 1,000 meters”, Krol referred to the last distance of the weekend. He recorded the fastest time of the day at that distance (1.08.34) and closed the NK sprint somewhat positively.
“I could have sat in a corner after the 500 meters and gave up, but I wanted to take revenge on the 1,000 meters. I am proud that I succeeded, despite my aching knee.”
The first place on the second 1,000 meters was not enough to still make it to the podium. Krol came fourth behind teammates Hein Otterspeer, Kai Verbij and Dai Dai N’tab. “It is quite a funny story that after such a fall you still finish fourth, but of course that is not the place I came here for.”
Krol has about four weeks to prepare his skates, because then the important World Cup qualifying tournament (26-28 December) awaits. “I will sit down for a while for the next few days, but I have no doubt that it will be okay.”
– .
