Winter Olympics Countdown ‘If You Hit It Right, You Blast Through'

Cornelius Kersten has a Dutch father but he will be the first Briton in long-track speed skating since 1992

- Paul MacInnes

‘ I want to put down the best possible race I can,” says Cornelius Kersten, the first British long-track speed skater to make a Winter Olympics in 30 years. “To get the official word a few days ago was like a weight falling off the shoulders. It’s official now, it’s going to happen and it feels amazing. My ambition is to be there in the best shape of my life.”

The history of British Olympic speed skating is hardly voluminous, one bronze medal the extent of it. Of late, Elise Christie has helped to burnish the national reputation in the short-track form, with the Scot winning world and European titles, but the long track – the icy equivalent of a track cycling time trial – has been out of the reach of these temperate isles for a generation.

Kersten qualifies after a number of personal bests in the World Cup series last year and will compete in the 1, 000m and 1,500m events. His success comes after years of dedication, often without any official funding, and he has grown alongside his partner, the fellow British speed skater Ellia Smeding. They share a passion and a business but also a location, one that in speed skating is worth almost half a second in itself: the Netherlands.