Emergency solution to the missing record: “borrowed screws”

Last weekend Nils van der Poel broke a new world record in the 5,000m: 6.01.56.

During the night through Saturday, he attempted to break the record again – and be the first ever in six minutes.

he did not do. The 25-year-old from Trollhättan definitely dominated the World Cup tournament in Calgary and won by a wide margin in the 5000 metres.

But the time remains at 6.04.30.

hoping for more

After that, Van der Poel admits he was hoping for more.

I still think it’s possible to walk for six minutes on a good day. We were hoping that would be enough today, but it wasn’t.

The Swede also says he skated with borrowed materials for skates.

– When we travel, we take skis in hand luggage. But we have to check the baggage rails. I put the rails in one bag, but the screws ended up in another. So when we traveled from Salt Lake City to Calgary, we had some problems delivering bags. The screws did not come.

‘Big differences’

The emergency solution was to borrow the screws.

– I borrowed screws from a colleague in the UK.

He doesn’t think that makes any difference.

– If you need to borrow shoes or rails, we’re talking big differences. But there is no feeling in the nuts immediately.

Van der Poel’s last competition was before the Olympic Games in Beijing.

Archive: Nils van der Poel after the world record (December 4, 2021)