Kodaira and Smeekens make history at Single Distance World Championships
BySportsbeat
Published 10/02/2017 at 22:50 GMT
Records tumbled on the second day of the speed skating World Single Distance Championships as Japan's Nao Kodaira won her country's first gold medal at the event, and the Netherlands became the first country to sweep the board.
Eurosport
Image credit: Eurosport
Kodaira won the 500m while the Netherlands took three gold medals on day two in Gangneung, South Korea.
The 31-year-old Japanese sensation was the in-form favourite heading into the competition after winning every 500m World Cup this season.
And she lived up to the expectations, setting a new Japanese national record of 37.13s, with home favourite Sang-Hwa Lee clocking 37.48 for silver, while Jing Yu stopped the clock in 37.57s to take bronze for China and push the Czech Republic's Karolina Erbanova to fourth at the last opportunity.
In the men's event Jan Smeekens' gold meant the Netherlands become the first country to win every men's event in the history of the championships.
The Dutchman recorded a time of 34.58s, with Germany's Nico Ihle second, just 0.08s slower, while Russia's Ruslan Murashov was a further tenth of a second back to take bronze.
And there was more Dutch success in the team pursuit races, with the lowland skaters winning both races.
The women's squad had to settle for silver in 2016, but Ireen Wust, Antoinette de Jong and Marrit Leenstra bounced back this year to set a time of 2:55.85, beating Japan's Miho Takagi, Misaki Oshigiri and Nana Takagi into second by 0.65s.
Russia's trio of Olga Graf, Natalia Voronina and Yekaterina Shikhova were a distant third in 3:00.51.
For the men it was a fourth straight team pursuit title as Douwe de Vries, Jorrit Bergsma and Jan Blokhuijsen beat New Zealand by 0.42s, with Norway in third.
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