Maria Sterk (born 5 June 1979, in

Hallum Hallum is a village in the province of Friesland, the Netherlands. It is a village in the municipality of Noardeast-Fryslân and it had a population of around 2,746 in January 2017. The primary language spoken is West Frisian. Before 2019, the vil ...

) is a Dutch marathon

speed skater Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in travelling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marathon speed skating. ...

. In 2005, she finished in third position of the

Essent Cup Essent N.V. is a Dutch energy company based in 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands. It is a subsidiary of E.ON. It is a public limited liability corporation. Essent is the largest energy company in the country. Belgium is their second home market. Es ...

and on 11 February of that year she announced to attack the women's world hour speed skating record, which was held by Lilian van Tol at that time. On 30 March 2005, she broke the world record in the

Thialf Thialf is an ice arena in Heerenveen, Netherlands. Thialf consists of the Thialf-hal (a 12,500-capacity speed skating venue) and the Elfstedenhal (a 2,500-capacity ice hockey venue). Thialf is used for long track speed skating, short track speed ...

stadium of Heerenveen and set the distance at 36.441,26 metres.Schaatsster Maria Sterk zet werelduurrecord op 36.441,26 meter
frieschdagblad.nl. Starting with laps of 37 seconds she took an advantage of a minute over the former record before skating laps of 40 seconds. In the end her average laptime was 39.5 seconds, which was enough to break the record. The record set by van Tol was 34.507,30 metres.Maria Sterk doet aanval op werelduurrecord
frieschdagblad.nl. Sterk finished second in the 2006 Five Days of the Greenery. She was unable to win any of the races, but finished in second position in two races and gained enough points to claim the second place in the final rankings behind

Daniëlle Bekkering Daniëlle Bekkering (born 25 December 1976 in Groningen (city), Groningen) is a Dutch marathon speed skating, speed skater, short track speed skating, short track speed skater, and cycle sport, cyclist who currently lives in Den Ham (Groningen). B ...

, but in front of

Elma de Vries Elma de Vries (born 20 March 1983) is a Dutch marathon speed skater and inline speed skater. She is the older sister of marathon speed skater Bob de Vries. Biography De Vries was three years old when she started riding on skates on a small cr ...

.Maria Sterk
wereldvanoranje.nl. She also managed to claim one second and two third positions at the Essent Cup 2006–07, which is still running. She is currently found at the third spot behind Bekkering and de Vries.

Records

Personal records

World records

References

1979 births Dutch female speed skaters Sportspeople from Friesland People from Ferwerderadiel Living people 21st-century Dutch women 20th-century Dutch women {{Netherlands-speed-skating-bio-stub