The 2012 European Speed Skating Championships was the 37th continental speed skating event for women and the 106th for men, that was held at the City Park Ice Rink in Budapest, Hungary, from 6 to 8 January 2012. The competition was also a qualifying event for the 2012 World Allround Speed Skating Championships as the entry quotas were allocated according to the results of the European Championships.
In the absence of defending champion Ivan Skobrev, who did not participate due to an injury, Dutchman Sven Kramer took the men's European title. This was his fifth victory, having won previously four consecutive European Championships between 2007 and 2010. Kramer also ran track records both in the 1500 meters and 5000 metres event, and his overall score of 156.197 is the best ever result at the City Park Ice Rink as well.
In the women's competition previous year's gold medalist Martina Sáblíková retained her title, achieving her third European success in row and fourth overall. Sáblíková also set a new track record in 3000 metres with a time of 4:16.09.
Further two records were beaten over the weekend, both in 500 metres. On the first day of the championships, Sáblíková's compatriot Karolína Erbanová set a new best time, and a day later Konrad Niedźwiedzki of Poland ran a track record on the shortest distance.
Venue The competition took place at the City Park Ice Rink, an outdoor artificial skating rink situated in the downtown of Budapest. Prior to the championships, the rink went through a renovation and modernization for a fee of 4.7 billion Hungarian Forint (approximately €16 million), of which 3 billion came from the European Regional Development Fund. As a result, the main building was restored to its 19th-century look, the ice surface was expanded by 15 percent and a embedded cooling system was laid down as well. The races were held on a standard track of 400 meters with outer curves of 29 meters and inner curves of 25 meters radii. Both racing lanes were 4 meters wide, with an additional inside training track of the similar width.
Participating nations
A provisional list of competitors and staff had to be presented until 19 December 2011, while the final deadline of applications for the European Championships was closed on 3 January 2012. Every European member federation of the International Skating Union (ISU), whose racer met the qualification criteria were eligible to delegate one participant to the event, and, according to the rules of the ISU, the following nations had the right to enter additional competitors in virtue of their results in the previous continental event:
Women: 4 competitors: Netherlands 3 competitors: Czech Republic, Germany, Norway, Poland, Russia 2 competitors: Austria, Belarus
Men: 4 competitors: Netherlands, Norway 3 competitors: Poland, Russia 2 competitors: Belarus, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Sweden
Eventually 54 competitors from 18 nations registered officially for the championships, not including the substitutes, in the following distribution:
(2) (2) (3) (3) (1) (1) (2) (5) (1) (2) (1) (8) (7) (6) (1) (6) (1) (2)
Although registered for the event, Kaitlyn McGregor from Switzerland and Joel Eriksson from Sweden did not participate at the European Championships.
Events
Schedule 5 JanuaryThursday6 JanuaryFriday7 JanuarySaturday8 JanuarySundayTeam leaders meetingOpening drawOpening ceremony500 metres women3000 metres womenDrawing for Saturday’s distances500 metres men1500 metres women5000 metres menDrawing for Sunday’s distances1500 metres men5000 metres women10000 metres menAward ceremony
Women's competition The women's European Championship were held over three days, with the 500 metres and the 3000 metres event in the first day, followed by the 1500 metres event on the second day. Skaters were awarded points according to their times, and the twelve best placed competitors after the second day were eligible to participate in the 5000 metres closing event on the last day of the championship.
The first fourteen skaters earned a spot for their countries for the 2012 World Allround Championships, which means that the Netherlands got four, Russia, Germany, Norway and Poland three and the Czech Republic one place.
The entries for the 2013 European Championships were also determined using the results of the European Championships. Countries with at least three skaters in the first twelve earned four entry positions (Netherlands), countries with at least two skaters in the first sixteen earned three quotas (Czech Republic, Germany, Norway, Poland, Russia), and countries with at least one skater in the first twenty earned two places for the next continental championship (Austria, Belgium). All other European ISU members have the right to delegate one skater, subject to the qualifying time limits are met.
500 metres RankAthleteCountryTimeBehindPoints 1 Karolína Erbanová 39.87 TR 0.00 39.870 2 Ireen Wüst 40.21 0.34 40.210 3 Yuliya Skokova 40.40 0.53 40.400 4 Yekaterina Lobysheva 40.62 0.75 40.620 5 Claudia Pechstein 40.67 0.80 40.670 6 Annouk van der Weijden 41.13 1.26 41.130 7 Ida Njåtun 41.20 1.33 41.200 8 Natalia Czerwonka 41.22 1.35 41.220 9 Linda de Vries 41.33 1.46 41.330 10 Hege Bøkko 41.48 1.61 41.480 11 Diane Valkenburg 41.56 1.69 41.560 12 Katarzyna Woźniak 41.59 1.72 41.590 13 Mari Hemmer 41.73 1.86 41.730 14 Martina Sáblíková 41.79 1.92 41.790 15 Olga Graf 42.08 2.21 42.080 16 Isabell Ost 42.11 2.24 42.110 17 Luiza Złotkowska 42.22 2.35 42.220 18 Anna Rokita 42.32 2.45 42.320 19 Bente Kraus 43.07 3.20 43.070 20 Ágota Tóth 43.29 3.42 43.290 21 Nele Armée 43.56 3.69 43.560 22 Tatyana Mikhailova 43.58 3.71 43.580 23 Sara Bak 44.81 4.94 44.810
3000 metres RankAthleteCountryTimeBehindPoints 1 Martina Sáblíková 4:16.09 TR 0.00 42.681 2 Natalia Czerwonka 4:19.41 3.32 43.235 3 Claudia Pechstein 4:19.71 3.62 43.285 4 Diane Valkenburg 4:21.29 5.20 43.548 5 Ireen Wüst 4:22.59 6.50 43.765 6 Isabell Ost 4:22.65 6.56 43.775 7 Linda de Vries 4:25.40 9.31 44.233 8 Olga Graf 4:26.08 9.99 44.346 9 Hege Bøkko 4:26.39 10.30 44.398 10 Yuliya Skokova 4:26.78 10.69 44.463 11 Katarzyna Woźniak 4:28.38 12.29 44.730 12 Annouk van der Weijden 4:28.84 12.75 44.806 13 Bente Kraus 4:28.85 12.76 44.808 14 Anna Rokita 4:29.37 13.28 44.895 15 Yekaterina Lobysheva 4:30.20 14.11 45.033 16 Nele Armée 4:31.99 15.90 45.331 17 Ida Njåtun 4:33.01 16.92 45.501 18 Luiza Złotkowska 4:35.67 19.58 45.945 19 Mari Hemmer 4:36.37 20.28 46.061 20 Karolína Erbanová 4:41.89 25.80 46.981 21 Tatyana Mikhailova 4:43.76 27.67 47.293 22 Sara Bak 4:45.07 28.98 48.511 23 Ágota Tóth 4:50.82 34.73 48.470
1500 metres
RankAthleteCountryTimeBehindPoints 1 Martina Sáblíková 2:03.64 0.00 41.123 2 Linda de Vries 2:04.70 1.06 41.556 3 Yuliya Skokova 2:05.18 1.54 41.726 4 Diane Valkenburg 2:05.61 1.97 41.870 5 Yekaterina Lobysheva 2:06.01 2.37 42.003 6 Ireen Wüst 2:06.36 2.72 42.120 7 Olga Graf 2:07.93 4.29 42.643 8 Annouk van der Weijden 2:08.15 4.51 42.716 9 Natalia Czerwonka 2:08.65 5.01 42.883 10 Claudia Pechstein 2:08.72 5.08 42.906 11 Hege Bøkko 2:09.03 5.39 43.010 12 Ida Njåtun 2:09.19 5.55 43.063 13 Katarzyna Woźniak 2:09.56 5.92 43.186 14 Luiza Złotkowska 2:10.08 6.44 43.360 15 Nele Armée 2:10.81 7.17 43.603 16 Karolína Erbanová 2:10.91 7.27 43.636 17 Anna Rokita 2:11.38 7.74 43.793 18 Isabell Ost 2:11.68 8.04 43.893 19 Mari Hemmer 2:12.07 8.43 44.023 20 Tatyana Mikhailova 2:13.49 9.85 44.496 21 Bente Kraus 2:14.29 10.65 44.763 22 Ágota Tóth 2:15.44 11.80 45.146 23 Sara Bak 2:16.56 12.92 45.520
5000 metres
RankAthleteCountryTimeBehindPoints 1 Martina Sáblíková 7:22.38 0.00 44.238 2 Claudia Pechstein 7:34.51 12.13 45.451 3 Ireen Wüst 7:43.59 21.21 46.359 4 Linda de Vries 7:45.27 22.89 46.527 5 Diane Valkenburg 7:48.04 25.66 46.804 6 Olga Graf 7:52.54 30.16 47.254 7 Isabell Ost 7:55.11 32.73 47.511 8 Natalia Czerwonka 7:56.18 33.80 47.618 9 Annouk van der Weijden 8:00.32 37.94 48.032 10 Yuliya Skokova 8:02.16 39.78 48.216 11 Katarzyna Woźniak 8:08.95 46.57 48.895 12 Hege Bøkko 8:35.95 73.57 51.595
Points evolution and overall result RankAthleteCountry500 m3000 m1500 m5000 mBehind Martina Sáblíková 41.790 (14) 84.471 (4) 125.684 (1)169.922 (1) 0.00 Claudia Pechstein 40.670 (5) 83.955 (1) 126.861 (4)172.312 (2) 2.39 Ireen Wüst 40.210 (2) 83.975 (2) 126.095 (1)172.454 (3) 2.59 4 Linda de Vries 41.330 (9) 85.563 (7) 127.129 (6)173.656 (4) 3.74 5 Diane Valkenburg 41.560 (11) 85.108 (6) 126.978 (5) 173.782 (5) 3.86 6 Yuliya Skokova 40.400 (3) 84.863 (5) 126.589 (3)174.805 (6) 4.89 7 Natalia Czerwonka 41.220 (8) 84.455 (3) 127.338 (7) 174.956 (7) PB 5.04 8 Olga Graf 42.080 (15) 86.426 (13) 129.069 (11)176.323 (8) 6.41 9 Annouk van der Weijden 41.130 (6) 85.936 (11) 128.652 (9) 176.684 (9) 6.77 10 Isabell Ost 42.110 (16) 85.885 (10) 129.778 (14)177.289 (10) 7.37 11 Katarzyna Woźniak 41.590 (12) 86.320 (12) 129.506 (12)178.401 (11) 8.48 12 Hege Bøkko 41.480 (10) 85.878 (9) 128.888 (10)180.483 (12) 10.57 13 Yekaterina Lobysheva 40.620 (4) 85.653 (8) 127.656 (8) 14 Ida Njåtun 41.200 (7) 86.701 (14) 129.764 (13) 15 Karolína Erbanová 39.870 (1) 86.851 (15) 130.487 (15) 16 Anna Rokita 42.320 (18) 87.215 (16) 131.008 (16) 17 Luiza Złotkowska 42.220 (17) 88.165 (19) 131.525 (17) 18 Mari Hemmer 41.730 (13) 87.791 (17) 131.814 (18) 19 Nele Armée 43.560 (21) 88.891 (20) 132.494 (19) 20 Bente Kraus 43.070 (19) 87.878 (18) 132.641 (20) 21 Tatyana Mikhailova 43.580 (22) 90.873 (21) 135.369 (21) 22 Ágota Tóth 43.290 (20) 91.760 (22) 136.906 (22) 23 Sara Bak 44.810 (23) 92.321 (23) 137.841 (23)
Men's competition The men's event took place on Saturday and Sunday, with the 500 metres and the 5000 metres race at the first day and the 1500 and 10,000 meters final race in the second day. After the first day, the best 24 out of the 29 skaters got the change to participate in the 5000 meters event, while the best 12 competitors after three events took part in the 10,000 meters race.
According to the ISU rules, the fourteen best placed skaters won for their country an entry spots for the 2012 Allround World Championships. Based on the final result, the Netherlands earned four places for the World event, Norway and Poland got two, and Belgium, France, Germany, Latvia and Russia got one each.
The places for the 2013 Allround European Championships were also distributed using the classification of the European Championships. Countries with at least three skaters in the first twelve earned four spots (Netherlands), countries with at least two skaters in the first sixteen earned three (Norway and Poland), and countries with at least one skater in the first twenty earned two starting places (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Russia). All other European ISU members have got one spot, subject to the time limits set are met.
500 metres RankAthleteCountryTimeBehindPoints 1 Konrad Niedźwiedzki 36.89 TR 0.00 36.890 2 Zbigniew Bródka 36.90 0.01 36.900 3 Jan Blokhuijsen 36.93 0.04 36.930 4 Tommi Pulli 37.14 0.25 37.140 5 Håvard Bøkko 37.25 0.36 37.250 6 Haralds Silovs 37.46 0.57 37.460 7 Jan Szymański 37.48 0.59 37.480 Benjamin Macé 37.48 0.59 37.480 9 Kristian Reistad Fredriksen 37.51 0.62 37.510 10 Koen Verweij 37.73 0.84 37.730 11 Bram Smallenbroek 37.75 0.86 37.750 12 Sven Kramer 37.77 0.88 37.770 13 Alexis Contin 37.80 0.91 37.800 14 Ted-Jan Bloemen 37.84 0.95 37.840 15 Luca Stefani 37.89 1.00 37.890 16 Pavel Baynov 38.00 1.11 38.000 17 Sverre Lunde Pedersen 38.04 1.15 38.040 18 Simen Spieler Nilsen 38.17 1.28 38.170 19 Milan Sáblík 38.24 1.35 38.240 20 Marco Cignini 38.31 1.42 38.310 21 Vitaly Mikhailov 38.34 1.45 38.340 22 Sergey Gryaztsov 38.35 1.46 38.350 23 Denis Yuskov 38.46 1.57 38.460 24 Patrick Beckert 38.56 1.67 38.560 25 Bart Swings 38.81 1.92 38.810 26 Moritz Geisreiter 39.33 2.44 39.330