Categories: Sports

Skating hero Kees Verkerk is 80 years old and still holds 21 course records

Skating hero Kees Verkerk is 80 years old and still holds 21 course records

For all ice skating fans in the Netherlands, the wait is over. Today is the start of the ice skating season in Heerenveen. Today’s heroes are called Jutta, Patrick and Thomas. Fifty years ago it was Ard and Keessie.

This ‘Keessie’ is celebrating his 80th birthday today. Born and raised in his parents’ pub in Puttershoek, Kees Verkerk is celebrating his birthday in Norway. It was there that he found his second home years ago. And that’s where he keeps his Olympic medals.

The gold over 1,500 meters in Grenoble, for example, the first Olympic victory in figure skating for a Dutchman. But also the silver medal over 1,500 meters in Innsbruck four years earlier.

21 more course records to Verkerk

Sports historian Jurryt van de Vooren and skating historian Marnix Koolhaas compiled a list of track records that are still held in Verkerk’s name half a century later.

They set 21 records on 15 different ice rinks. Verkerk won half of that in the harsh winter of 1963 – the toughest Elfstedentocht in history – in matches in the South and North Holland regions.

He set his first course records in one day, December 29, 1962, at competitions at ‘s Gravendeel and Puttershoek. Almost a year later he turned the South Holland Championship at Ter Aar to his will by winning the 5,000 meters in a still unassailable track record of 8.39.4.

There was a reason for this: Because the curves of the ice rink in Ter Aar were already well worn, Verkerk – smart as he was – simply drove within the edges of the snow. Also thanks to the dense fog that hung over the route, the jury and favorite Rudie Liebrechts was left behind.

Rudie Liebrechts, Ard Schenk and Kees Verkerk at the NK 1965 in Deventer.

Remarkably, that foggy South Holland title at Ter Aar convinced the KNSB to add young Verkerk to the core squad. A right decision, because a year later Verkerk won Olympic silver over 1,500 meters in Innsbruck.

This Innsbruck silver medal is in its native Norway, without a ribbon. The tape went with him in his mother’s coffin. The day after Verkerk’s ceremony at the parents’ cafe in Puttershoek, Verkerk found his mother lifeless in bed.

In De muts van Kees Verkerk, a 2017 documentary in the Other Times Sport series, Verkerk spoke candidly about this radical moment. “There was music and noise downstairs (in the café). I was down two steps and I said, ‘Mother is dead. It’s the medal’s fault’.”

The fur hat told Kees Verkerk that life goes on

In memory of his mother, Verkerk maintained the fur hat his mother wore for the rest of his career at his gold Olympic race in Innsbruck. The hat belonged in the trunk everywhere, and Verkerk used it to warm his head wherever he could or had to.

Like in 1967, when he became European champion in Lahti, Finland, at temperatures of 35 degrees below zero. 2.12.9 over 1,500 meters and 7.47.1 over 5,000 meters by Verkerk are still unrivaled 55 years later.

Due to the harsh conditions, the final distance was 10,000 meters. shortened to 3,000 meters. And after that, Lahti’s natural ice rink was – understandably – shunned by the top skaters.

Watch the fragment from Andere Tijden Sport below where Kees Verkerk talks about his European title in Lahti.

Verkerk remembers the 1967 European Championships in Lahti: “35 degrees below zero, tsjongejongejonge”

Also in Stavanger, where the first World Cup competition is due in two weeks, Verkerk is still on the books. In January 1968 – just before the Grenoble Games, where he would take gold and silver – Verkerk set a course record in the 1,500 meters with a time of 2.13.7.

But that was at a different time on a natural ice rink, where wind and weather had free reign. Last year’s winner Ning Zhongyan was almost half a minute faster at the Sørmarka Arena in Stavanger.

Below you can watch the entire documentary ‘Kees Verkerk’s Fur Hat’ by Andere Tijden Sport.

Other Times Sport: ‘Kees Verkerk’s hat’


      Source:NOS

      Share
      Published by
      Maxine
      Tags: Kees Verkerk

      Recent Posts

      Terror suspect Chechen ‘hanged himself’ in Russian custody Egyptian President al-Sisi has been sworn in for a third term

      On the same day of the terrorist attack on the Krokus City Hall in Moscow,…

      1 year ago

      Locals demand tourist tax for Tenerife: “Like a cancer consuming the island”

      class="sc-cffd1e67-0 iQNQmc">1/4Residents of Tenerife have had enough of noisy and dirty tourists.It's too loud, the…

      1 year ago

      Agreement reached: this is how much Tuchel will receive for his departure from Bayern

      class="sc-cffd1e67-0 iQNQmc">1/7Packing his things in Munich in the summer: Thomas Tuchel.After just over a year,…

      1 year ago

      Worst earthquake in 25 years in Taiwan +++ Number of deaths increased Is Russia running out of tanks? Now ‘Chinese coffins’ are used

      At least seven people have been killed and 57 injured in severe earthquakes in the…

      1 year ago

      Now the moon should also have its own time (and its own clocks). These 11 photos and videos show just how intense the Taiwan earthquake was

      The American space agency NASA would establish a uniform lunar time on behalf of the…

      1 year ago

      This is how the Swiss experienced the earthquake in Taiwan: “I saw a crack in the wall”

      class="sc-cffd1e67-0 iQNQmc">1/8Bode Obwegeser was surprised by the earthquake while he was sleeping. “It was a…

      1 year ago