The 2007 European Speed Skating Championships were held on the outdoor artificial ice track Arena Ritten in Collalbo, Italy. The Championships were three-day allround events, with the skaters completing four distances before the final championship standings are determined based on the samalog system.

Live broadcasts from the Championships were shown on Nederland 1, KNSB.nl | EK Allround 2007 Collalbo , from KNSB, retrieved 12 January 2007. NRK Sport - NRK , retrieved 12 January 2007. and Rai Tre/Rai Sport Sat, Guida TV , from rai.it, Communication from FISG, retrieved 11 January 2006. with highlights on Das Erste.

The two champions were both below 21 years of age; Sven Kramer won his first European gold medal, two years after winning silver in Thialf, while Czech Martina Sáblíková won the women's championship to become the first Czech to medal at a European championship, and also the youngest European women's champion. Kramer is the youngest European Champion since 1992.

Rules

All skaters were allowed to skate the first three distances; 12 skaters took part on the fourth distance. These were qualified by taking the standings on the longest of the first three distances, as well as the samalog standings after three distances, and comparing these lists as follows:

Skaters among the top 12 on both lists were qualified. To make up a total of 12, skaters were then added in order of their best rank on either list. Samalog standings take precedence over longest-distance standings in the event of a tie.

Final standings Men

The top six skaters from the 2006 Championships were all present.List of Competitors Men, from KNSB. Place Athlete Country 500 m 5000 m 1500 m 10000 m points Sven Kramer 36.76 ( 5) 6:15.65 ( 1) 1:44.86 ( 2) 13:10.44 ( 1) 148.800 Enrico Fabris 36.38 ( 1) 6:20.28 ( 3) 1:44.72 ( 1) 13:21.51 ( 3) 149.389 Carl Verheijen 37.53 (12) 6:19.67 ( 2) 1:47.34 ( 9) 13:15.37 ( 2) 151.045 4 Håvard Bøkko 36.99 ( 6) 6:24.41 ( 4) 1:47.10 ( 7) 13:27.38 ( 4) 151.500 5 Ivan Skobrev 36.39 ( 2) 6:39.28 (13) 1:46.68 ( 4) 13:45.01 ( 9) 153.128 6 Eskil Ervik 37.96 (16) 6:24.85 ( 5) 1:47.56 (10) 13:36.62 ( 8) 153.129 7 Tobias Schneider 37.48 (11) 6:35.72 (10) 1:47.03 ( 6) 13:34.14 ( 5) 153.435 8 Mark Tuitert 36.60 ( 4) 6:36.79 (11) 1:46.19 ( 3) 14:05.27 (11) 153.938 9 Henrik Christiansen 38.13 (17) 6:31.12 ( 7) 1:47.87 (12) 13:35.72 ( 6) 153.984 10 Wouter olde Heuvel 37.57 (14) 6:28.96 ( 6) 1:47.60 (11) 13:54.40 (10) 154.052 11 Sverre Haugli 38.20 (18) 6:31.55 ( 8) 1:48.16 (14) 13:35.92 ( 7) 154.204 12 Matteo Anesi 37.22 ( 8) 6:38.62 (12) 1:48.85 (15) 14:22.38 (12) 156.484 13 Konrad Niedźwiedzki 36.52 ( 3) 6:47.81 (19) 1:46.96 ( 5) 112.954 14 Stefan Heythausen 37.46 (10) 6:42.44 (15) 1:47.28 ( 8) 113.464 15 Jarmo Valtonen 37.14 ( 7) 6:48.88 (20) 1:47.94 (13) 114.008 16 Johan Röjler 38.52 (19) 6:35.46 ( 9) 1:49.68 (17) 114.626 17 Alexis Contin 37.35 ( 9) 6:44.91 (18) 1:50.43 (18) 114.651 18 Joel Eriksson 37.55 (13) 6:52.95 (23) 1:49.04 (16) 115.191 19 Vitaly Mikhailov 37.58 (15) 6:57.52 (25) 1:50.48 (19) 116.158 20 Artyom Belousov 39.01 (22) 6:43.24 (16) 1:50.91 (20) 116.304 21 Sławomir Chmura 38.78 (21) 6:43.64 (17) 1:52.07 (22) 116.500 22 Alexey Yunin 39.57 (27) 6:40.83 (14) 1:51.12 (21) 116.693 23 Christian Pichler 39.30 (26) 6:50.43 (21) 1:52.07 (22) 117.699 24 Witold Mazur 39.24 (25) 6:51.29 (22) 1:55.13 (27) 118.745 25 Maxim Pedos 39.16 (24) 7:00.30 (28) 1:52.78 (24) 118.783 26 Oliver Sundberg 39.02 (23) 7:01.16 (29) 1:54.26 (25) 119.22227 Martin Hänggi 38.76 (20) 7:06.32 (30) 1:54.32 (26) 119.498 28 Claudiu Grozea 39.89 (29) 6:55.74 (24) 1:55.76 (28) 120.050 29 Milan Sáblík 39.62 (28) 6:59.98 (27) 1:57.06 (29) 120.638 Kris Schildermans DSQ 6:58.42 (26) 1:57.51 (30) Stefano Donagrandi DNF

A placing among the top 16 qualified the nation for the 2007 World Championships as well as the 2008 European Championships (where each federation is automatically entitled to one skater and any additional skaters are added to this quota, with a cap of four.)

Women

Anni Friesinger, five-time European Champion, withdrew to concentrate on the World Sprint Championships a week later.Classification Ladies , from Sport Computer Graphics.

At first, the Norwegian Skating Federation selected only Maren Haugli, but included Mari Hemmer and Hedvig Bjelkevik after protests from within the speed skating community. Mari vant NM - vraket til EM, ANB, from dagbladet.no, retrieved 11 January 2007. Hemmer blir likevel med til EM , ANB, from siste.no, retrieved 11 January 2007. Bjelkevik later declined, citing the same reason as Friesinger.

The top seven skaters from the 2006 Championships were all present.

Place Athlete Country 500 m 1500 m 3000 m 5000 m points Martina Sáblíková 40.97 ( 9) 1:58.66 ( 6) 4:03.52 ( 1) 6:58.45 ( 1) 162.954 Ireen Wüst 39.51 ( 1) 1:56.78 ( 1) 4:07.61 ( 3) 7:12.73 ( 6) 162.977 Renate Groenewold 41.05 (10) 1:58.64 ( 5) 4:04.24 ( 2) 7:08.76 ( 2) 164.178 4 Daniela Anschütz-Thoms 40.63 ( 7) 1:58.08 ( 3) 4:08.28 ( 4) 7:10.49 ( 4) 164.419 5 Claudia Pechstein 40.28 ( 4) 1:58.72 ( 7) 4:11.15 ( 6) 7:10.05 ( 3) 164.716 6 Marja Vis 40.65 ( 8) 1:59.56 ( 8) 4:09.99 ( 5) 7:11.77 ( 5) 165.345 7 Paulien van Deutekom 40.51 ( 5) 1:58.34 ( 4) 4:12.79 (10) 7:23.94 (10) 166.481 8 Lucille Opitz 41.16 (12) 1:59.77 (10) 4:12.13 ( 8) 7:17.81 ( 9) 166.885 9 Maren Haugli 41.13 (11) 2:01.50 (13) 4:11.89 ( 7) 7:14.26 ( 7) 167.037 10 Yekaterina Abramova 39.91 ( 2) 1:57.98 ( 2) 4:18.79 (13) 7:34.62 (12) 167.829 11 Katarzyna Wójcicka 40.56 ( 6) 1:59.79 (11) 4:16.33 (12) 7:31.08 (11) 168.319 12 Andrea Jirků 43.46 (26) 2:03.37 (16) 4:12.51 ( 9) 7:17.44 ( 8) 170.412 13 Yekaterina Lobysheva 40.15 ( 3) 1:59.53 ( 8) 4:20.23 (15) 123.364 14 Katrin Mattscherodt 41.68 (15) 2:02.05 (14) 4:15.13 (11) 124.884 15 Anna Rokita 41.80 (16) 2:03.12 (15) 4:19.85 (14) 126.148 16 Galina Likhachova 41.41 (13) 2:00.93 (12) 4:28.57 (24) 126.481 17 Luiza Złotkowska 42.47 (19) 2:04.15 (17) 4:23.85 (18) 127.828 18 Mari Hemmer 42.24 (17) 2:04.04 (18) 4:23.74 (17) 127.842 19 Oana Opincariu 42.89 (24) 2:06.20 (22) 4:20.46 (19) 128.366 20 Yekaterina Malysheva 41.42 (14) 2:05.61 (19) 4:31.96 (25) 128.616 21 Yuliya Yasenok 42.37 (18) 2:06.04 (21) 4:26.09 (21) 128.731 22 Yelena Myagkikh 42.51 (20) 2:05.66 (20) 4:26.02 (20) 128.732 23 Marita Johansson 42.54 (21) 2:06.28 (23) 4:26.85 (23) 129.108 24 Martina Windhager 43.04 (25) 2:07.38 (25) 4:26.17 (22) 129.861 25 Cathrine Grage 44.52 (27) 2:06.89 (24) 4:24.55 (19) 130.907 26 Daniela Dumitru 42.77 (23) 2:07.66 (24) 4:33.57 (26) 130.918 27 Ágota Tóth 42.76 (22) 2:10.98 (27) 4:39.80 (27) 133.053

The top 14 have qualified their nation for the World Allround Championships. Skaters in the top 16 have given their nation an addition to the basis quota of one skater for the 2008 European Championships, with the quota capped at four skaters per nation.

Friday's events

The competitions began at 13:00 local time.

In the results list, previous European medallists are mentioned, as well as the top ten on each distance.

500 m men

Kramer advanced 13 places from his performance at the 2006 European Championship, and gained 0.8 seconds on Fabris compared to last year's standings. Ervik lost nearly a second, while Bøkko lost half a second and Verheijen gained 0.3 seconds, all compared to the defending champion Fabris. The distance podium is the same as last year, but only Skobrev finished in the same position.

Pos.RaceTimePos.Allround rankingsPoints 1. 36.38 1. 36.380 2. 36.39 2. 36.390 3. 36.52 3. 36.520 4. 36.60 4. 36.600 5. 36.76 5. 36.760 6. 36.99 6. 36.990 7. 37.14 7. 37.140 8. 37.22 8. 37.220 9. 37.35 9. 37.350 10. 37.46 10. 37.46012. 37.53 12. 37.53016. 37.96 16. 37.960

500 m women

Abramova, Lobysheva, Pechstein and Wójcicka all finished in the same order as in Hamar last year, with Abramova gaining a few hundredths of a second. However, Wüst gains over 1.2 seconds on those three compared to last year's performance, where she finished 0.79 500 m-seconds behind Pechstein in the overall standings. Groenewold finishes 0.77 seconds behind Pechstein, gaining 0.13 on 2006.

Pos.RaceTimePos.Allround rankingsPoints 1. 39.51 1. 39.510 2. 39.91 2. 39.910 3. 40.15 3. 40.150 4. 40.28 4. 40.280 5. 40.51 5. 40.510 6. 40.56 6. 40.560 7. 40.63 7. 40.630 8. 40.65 8. 40.650 9. 40.97 9. 40.970 10. 41.05 10. 41.050

5000 m men

The previous outdoor world best, by Chad Hedrick from the 2005 World Single Distance Championships, was bettered by 9.96 seconds. Verheijen was the first to beat the record, in the 12th of the 15 pairs, before Kramer lowered it by a further four seconds in the 13th pair, recording nine of twelve laps below 30 seconds.

Pos.RaceTimePos.Allround rankingsPoints 1. 6:15.65 1. 74.325 2. 6:19.67 2. 74.408 3. 6:20.28 3. 75.431 4. 6:24.41 4. 75.497 5. 6:24.85 5. 76.279 6. 6:28.96 6. 76.318 7. 6:31.12 7. 76.445 8. 6:31.55 8. 76.466 9. 6:35.46 9. 77.052 10. 6:35.72 10. 77.082 11. 6:36.79 11. 77.242

Saturday's events

The competitions began at 13:00 local time.

1500 m women

Wüst and Abramova finished first and second once more, with exactly the same difference in samalog points, while defending champion Pechstein, whose best World Cup ranking is in the long distance cup, advanced to third place in the allround rankings despite recording a worse placing here than on the 500 metres.

Pos.RaceTimePos.Allround rankingsPoints 1. 1:56.78 1. 78.436 2. 1:57.98 2. 79.236 3. 1:58.08 3. 79.853 4. 1:58.34 4. 79.956 5. 1:58.64 5. 79.990 6. 1:58.66 6. 79.993 7. 1:58.72 7. 80.490 8. 1:59.53 8. 80.503 9. 1:59.56 9. 80.523 10. 1:59.77 10. 80.596

1500 m men

In the final pair, Kramer bettered his personal best by nearly two seconds, thus advancing to third place on the Adelskalender. The outdoor world best mark was lowered by nearly three seconds by Fabris, who pipped Kramer to the line in the final pair, but remains 0.72 seconds behind before the final distance tomorrow, where Kramer was world record holder.

Pos.RaceTimePos.Allround rankingsPoints 1. 1:44.72 1. 109.278 2. 1:44.86 2. 109.314 3. 1:46.19 3. 111.131 4. 1:46.68 4. 111.277 5. 1:46.96 5. 111.675 6. 1:47.03 6. 111.878 7. 1:47.10 7. 112.298 8. 1:47.28 8. 112.332 9. 1:47.34 9. 112.728 10. 1:47.56 11. 113.19811. 1:47.60 12. 113.365 12. 1:47.87 13. 113.408

3000 m women

By winning the distance, 19-year-old Sáblíková advanced seven places in the overall standings, but still needed to beat Wüst by 14.05 seconds on the final 5,000 metres. On this distance, two-thirds the length, she beat Wüst by 4.09 seconds. Renate Groenewold finished second, also advancing seven places in the allround standings, after skating in the same pair as Sáblíková and leading until two laps remained.

Pos.RaceTimePos.Allround rankingsPoints 1. 4:03.52 1. 119.704 2. 4:04.24 2. 121.109 3. 4:07.61 3. 121.302 4. 4:08.28 4. 121.370 5. 4:09.99 5. 121.711 6. 4:11.15 6. 122.087 7. 4:11.85 7. 122.168 8. 4:12.13 8. 122.367 9. 4:12.51 9. 123.104 10. 4:12.79 10. 123.211 11. 4:15.13 12. 123.611 12. 4:16.33 16. 126.591

Sunday's events

The competitions began at 12:00 local time.

5000 m women

Sáblíková skated in the fifth pair, and after distancing Groenewold by 10 seconds and bettering the world outdoor mark by seven seconds, she set Wüst the task of finishing in 7:12.49 to become European champion. This would be fifth place thus far. Wüst started well, and with five laps to go, she was 0.6 seconds behind Sáblíková, with a cushion of more than 2.5 seconds per lap. But with lap times steadily going upwards, the worst being 37.0 on the penultimate lap, she arrived 0.23 seconds too late to become European champion. Sáblíková thus became the first Czech to win a senior speed skating championship. Neither Pechstein nor Anschütz-Thoms managed to beat Groenewold on the distance, giving Groenewold the bronze medal. Thus, in Friesinger's absence, Germany failed to finish on the podium for the first time since 1974.