Page 19 - ARUBA TODAY

A19
SPORTS Wednesday 14 February 2018

Nuis makes sure Dutch stay

good as gold at Olympic Oval

By RAF CASERT with pain. "In the last corner uled. That looks set to go
GANGNEUNG, South Korea I was thinking, 'Don't fall. to Nao Kodaira of Japan,
(AP) — The Olympic Oval Don't fall." who has been the over-
has turned into the royal He certainly didn't. whelming favorite for most
House of Orange — and At the same time, Roest of the season.
not because Dutch King was already in the stands, Then again, Wust, 1,500
Willem-Alexander is there over an hour after he had bronze medalist Marrit Gold medallist Kjeld Nuis of The Netherlands celebrates on the
most nights. It's all about set the early lead. It almost Leenstra and Jorien ter podium after the men's 1,500 meters speedskating race at the
the speedskating. was good enough for gold Mors will also line up in Gangneung Oval at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Gangneung,
Kjeld Nuis made it four gold in his first Olympics. orange.q South Korea, Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2018.
medals in four races for the "The nerves were continu-
Netherlands, a run nearly ing to roil," Roest said. "It
beyond belief. was a long wait."
"This is no longer normal," With lots of Dutch fans in the
Nuis said Tuesday after win- crowd, the top two got big
ning the 1,500 meters. cheers in the victory cere-
Moving in a blur of orange mony. But the biggest roar
early on with a blistering of all at the 8,000-capacity
pace, Nuis swept past his oval was for Kim Min-seok,
toughest opponents to the 18-year-old home skat-
take home gold. In sec- er who took bronze.
ond, of course, was anoth- American skaters disap-
er Dutchman — teammate pointed again with Joey
Patrick Roest. Mantia finishing eighth and
The Dutch have now won Shani Davis crossing in 19th
eight of 12 medals at the position, leaving the United
Pyeongchang Games, States with another bad
keeping them on the stun- start in the Olympics after
ning medal pace set at the they were shut out in Sochi.
2014 Sochi Games when The 1,500 race was seriously
they finished with 23 out of affected by the exclusion
36. of world-record holder De-
The 22-year-old Roest nis Yuskov, who is missing
raced with the ruthless because of the Russian
abandon of an Olympic doping scandal.
rookie and set an early time Nuis got a congratulatory
of 1 minute, 44.86 seconds message from the Russian
over a distance where rac- and replied, but refused to
ers either set off fast and try say what was in it.
to hold on or pace them- On the opening day of the
selves throughout. speedskating events, Car-
Nuis picked the first strategy lijn Achtereekte won the
and rode it to perfection. 3,000. Olympic champi-
"I went real hard from ons Sven Kramer and Ireen
the start not to have any Wust added the 5,000 and
regrets later," said Nuis, 1,500, respectively, making
whose main worry near the Dutch 4 for 4.
the end of the race was But don't count on 5 for 5
to stay upright as his pow- on Wednesday when the
erful thighs started burning women's 1,000 is sched-

linda.reijnders@cspnv.com