When the draw of the starting field of 10,000 meters was completed on Thursday, it was clear that Nils van der Poel in the penultimate starting pair.

In other words, the Swede does not know if he has won or not, when he finishes in Friday's race.

- What he loses this time is that he does not have control of the entire field.

He has a couple behind him, including the Canadian Ted-Jan Bloemen who is a medal candidate.

He still has control over the worst competitors but he still has one behind him.

That is the difference, says SVT's guest expert during the Olympics, Sebastian Falk.

Does it affect van der Poel's tactics?

- No, Nils will have a plan.

It will involve going on the lap times he has trained.

I would think it will be around low 29 (seconds), 29.5 and then try to keep it as long as possible.

For him, it's more about getting the most out of his skating than thinking about what the others are doing, says Falk.

Roest's biggest competitor

The 5,000-meter silver medalist, Patrick Roest, is still the biggest competitor to start in other starting pairs.

Another is the starting field's other Dutchman, Jorrit Bergsma.

Canadian Ted-Jan Bloemen is judged to be an outsider for a medal, according to Falk.

And van der Poel - he is an even bigger favorite at 10,000 meters than he was at 5,000 meters.

- If you look at the races that have been in recent years, he has a larger margin here.

At 5,000 meters, he has not been self-evident, despite world records.

But in 10,000 he has won with everything from 8 to 20 seconds, so there is a much larger margin to fall on if it does not suit him.

Friday's 10,000-meter race starts at 9.00 Swedish time.

CLIP: The expert on the detail that decided for Nils van der Poel (February 6)

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Picture by picture: The expert on the detail that decided for Nils van der Poel: "On the last straight ..." Photo: Discovery