The Masters’ International Sprint Games 2019, which were organized in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, on Saturday 9th and Sunday 10 March, went very successful. The atmosphere was super and the ice was perfect. So there were skated fast times, with 291 SB’s, 50 PB’s and even 5(!) IMSSC world records!

With 219 participants, the competition was well occupied: 14 countries, 57 women in the age groups 30 to 70 and 162 men in the age groups 30 to 90.

World records for Kanneworff and Marumo
In the age group L35 Mijke Anne Kanneworff from the Netherlands skated 3 world records! First day she skated 41.88 on the 500 meter. With this time she improved the record, which since 2010 was held of the Norwegian Nina Tørset in a time of 42.29 in Salt Lake City (USA). The second day Mijke improved her own new personal and world record again in an awesome time of 41.29! Her third world record was the total of sprint points of 169.530. This was only 5/1000 better than the existing record of 169,535, skated by Renske Winters (NED) in 2013 in Salt Lake City. It’s great that records from Salt Lake City can be broken in the Elfstedenhal in Leeuwarden!
In the M90 age group we would have two participants. Unfortunately the American Joseph Kello had to cancel his participation on the latest moment because of an injury. So only the Japanese Iichi Marumo had a chance to become world champion and to skate world records in the age group M90. On the first day, Iichi skated the first official time in the age group M90 ever in a time of 1.34.47, so that was his first world record. On the 1000m he unfortunately was disqualified by a wrong changing of lanes. After this it was not possible anymore for the Japanese to become world champion MSG2019 in M90. On the second day however, he skated – including a fall – his second world record in a time of 4.13.50.

Gratulations to Mijke Anne Kanneworff and Iichi Marumo ánd the ice masters with these world records!

Wonderful atmosphere
The super atmosphere was not only caused by the good times which were skated by many skaters and a lot of exciting races, but also by the social welcome ceremony with our Holland Market and magnificent demonstration of the wooden skate short trackers and our (house) brass band “Dik d’r Neffe”, who played both days during the ice preparation and made the event to a big party.

The starters and referees were firm but fair. They really liked it to work at this masters event and helped to succeed the MSG2019 in a successful event. One of the referees gave her feedback on Facebook:
“Back home after a fantastic weekend in Leeuwarden at the Master Sprint Games. It was great to take part in this event. On behalf of the Starters and Referees I want to thank the organizing committee, who made it very easy for us to do our job. We saw great races of all competitors. Who wasn’t touched by the performance of Mr. Marumo with his world record on the 500 meter, or the joy of the ladies 60+ after they completed their competition. It looked like carnaval on the infield. All these things created a wonderful atmosphere in the stadium. We loved every minute of it. Thank you so much.”
This says enough!

Thank you all!!
That we could manage this successful event, was only possible by a lot of people:

• 34 officials
• 9 members of the Organisation Committee
• 4 medical services
• 4 ice masters
• 18 members of the house band “Dik d’r Neffe”
• 16 members of the “Schoonrijders” team
• 7 participants of the ‘short track’ demonstration
• 3 catering assistants
• 1 livestream controller
• a lot of enthusiastic employees of the Elfstedenhal
• 7 sponsors
• 7 suppliers
• 5 official partners

Results, livestream and photos
Here you find all the results (incl. laptimes), you can look back to the livestream of both days and you find several links to a lot of photos that are made during the weekend.

Thank you all for helping us to make it a great MSG2019!

Organizing Committee MSG2019