During the team tempo in the European Skating Championships, the Norwegian men’s team delivered a record race. The historic time was 3.34.22. – It is simply a class difference, says former ice skater Mikael Flygind Larsen to news. The team consisting of Sverre Lunde Pedersen, Sander Eitrem and Peder Kongshaug went for both the world record and EC gold in Heerenveen. Even the trio was unable to explain the show of force and the world record. – When we saw 3.34 on the board, we hardly believed it, says Peder Kongshaug to news. Sander Eitrem says that the trio had talked among themselves that it might be possible to take the track record in Heerenveen. World records were never a topic. – We went quite a lot faster than we had thought, says Eitrem. – We did a few quick moves in training this week so we knew a bit what to expect, and races are a bit different, but today it started from the start and it never stopped. It was rough to be a part of, Sverre Lunde Pedersen continued. GOLDEN GUTTER: The Norwegian trio celebrated with the Norwegian flag on Dutch ice. Photo: NTB – Completely insane – They solve that team tempo in an absolutely superb way. You can see that in the way they go, they go in a special class the best of all the teams and solve it in a way where they look like one unit instead of three individual runners. It is a train that is completely synchronous. Everyone goes completely in sync all the way and then they optimize everything with regard to air resistance. And then they have strong runners and it seems that the three guys are in great shape, says Flygind Larsen, who followed the team pace from home. The old world record belonged to the USA and was 3.34.47 from 2021. It was set on the highland track in Salt Lake City. The course in Heerenveen is a low country course and the previous low country record was set by the Russian team during the Olympics in Beijing. That time was 3.36.62, and the Norwegian record time is therefore well over two seconds faster than that. – It is huge. When you see the difference down to Italy in 2nd place, it is absolutely insane. It must almost be a historic difference, says Larsen, referring to the fact that Norway won by a full six seconds to the Italians. The Netherlands, who finished third, were more than seven seconds behind the Norwegian golden boys. – It’s a classification that I don’t think I’ve been involved in before, at least, says Lunde Pedersen about the distance down to Italy. ONE UNIT: This is how Mikael Flygind Larsen describes the Norwegian team tempo trio who took both European Championship gold and set a world record on Friday night. Photo: VINCENT JANNINK / AFP – A new level – I don’t think anyone in their wildest imagination dreamed of a world record among the boys, says Hege Bøkko on VGTV’s broadcast. Flygind Larsen agrees. – That it would become a world record is completely, completely excessive. When they manage to do that, they take the exercise to a new level. Literally, he says, emphasizing: FORMER SKATING RACERS: Mikael Flygind Larsen. Photo: Stian Lysberg Solum / NTB – The combination of three runners with raw capacity and that execution makes them absolutely brilliant. World records were never a topic for the Norwegian trio. Sander Eitrem says that they had talked among themselves that it might be possible to take the course record in Heerenveen. It sounded 3.37.97 – and in other words was crushed this Friday evening. Norway took Olympic gold in team pace during the Games in China 2022, then with Hallgeir Engebråten as part of the team. However, Sander Eitrem has managed to fill the skates of Engebråten. Bronze for the women On the women’s side, Norway won a medal at the first attempt in the European Skating Championships single distances. Carina Jagtøyen, Julie Nistad Samsonsen and Martine Ripsrud took bronze in the team sprint. The women were beaten by the Netherlands and Poland. BRONZE TRIO: Julie Nistad Samsonsen, Martine Ripsrud and Carina Jagtøyen secured bronze in the women’s team sprint. Pictured here from a convention in Stavanger. Photo: NTB Norway has been on the podium in team sprints for women in three out of four European Championships. Ripsrud was also on the bronze team in 2018 and 2022. The Norwegian Skating Association has sent the largest Norwegian squad ever to the EC in single distances in the Netherlands. No less than 15 runners have made the trip to Heerenveen with the aim of capturing Norway’s first EC gold in single distances, which they have now managed. Ragne Wiklund also won bronze in the 3000 metres. Norway’s leading female skater fought for the gold for a long time with Dutch Marijke Groenewoud. They went together in the last pair. Wiklund found it difficult towards the end and ended up behind the aforementioned Groenewoud and her compatriot Irene Schouten.
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