Joy Beune won a direct race against Jenning de Boo in a 3,000-meter event held at a sold-out Elfstedenhal in Leeuwarden, finishing nearly one second ahead with a time of 4:04.55 compared to De Boo’s 4:05.54.
This report is based on coverage by NOS Schaatsen, a Dutch news outlet.
The idea for the race, billed as a ‘battle of the sexes,’ originated from a joke made by De Boo—who recently became the world sprint champion—about beating Beune, who is the reigning world champion in the 3,000-meter distance and also a teammate of Kjeld Nuis. Beune was initially skeptical about De Boo’s chances given that he had never competed in the 3,000-meter distance before. “I give him little chance,” she had said before the race, noting his unfamiliarity with the distance and pacing strategy.
De Boo admitted the event grew beyond what was intended, describing it as “a joke that got out of hand.” He started the race aggressively and led substantially in the early laps but struggled to maintain that pace over the full 7.5 laps. Beune employed a more measured strategy, gradually closing the gap while De Boo’s lap times dropped to around 35 seconds. Kjeld Nuis, who provided live commentary on Instagram for an audience of about 36,000 followers, encouraged Beune by remarking that De Boo was tiring during the race’s later stages.
In the end, Beune caught up to De Boo in the final stretch to secure the win. De Boo reflected post-race that his plan was to start fast, but he eventually hit “the wall.” The event highlighted the contrast between a sprint specialist and a long-distance champion adapting to a new challenge in a lighthearted competitive setting.
In addition to the 3,000-meter duel, the season-ending Zilveren Bal event featured sprint races over 100 meters. Yevgeniy Koshkin from Kazakhstan won the men’s sprint for the second consecutive year, with Stefan Westenbroek and Mats van den Bos finishing second and third respectively. Notably, Jordan Stolz was eliminated in the semi-finals. In the women’s category, Dione Voskamp claimed her fourth Zilveren Bal title with a narrow victory over Anna Boersma and Taiwan’s Ying-Chu Chen, clocking a time of 10.49 seconds. At 29 years old, Voskamp’s victory marked her final competitive race before retiring from her skating career.
