Nuis finishes in style to claim World Cup title in Stavanger

The flying Dutchman, who had already secured the 1000m World Cup title on Saturday, was racing Russian Denis Yuskov for the 1500m World Cup title in Stavanger.

Nuis powered home in 1:45.00, 1.28 seconds ahead of compatriot Patrick Roest. Sverre Lunde Pedersen gave his home crowd something to cheer when the Norwegian came home in third place with a time of 1:46.61.

Yuskov had to settle for silver overall after finishing fourth on Sunday.

In the women's event, American Heather Bergsma pulled out a tremendous overall win from under the nose of Dutch skater Marrit Leenstra.

Leenstra went into Sunday's final race with a 20-point margin, but Bergsma, knowing a gold medal would be enough to seal the title for herself, attacked from the front and stormed home in 1:54.92.

Leenstra could only manage fourth and came home in 1:56.63, finishing second in the Grand World Cup overall. Japanese skater Miho Takagi finished second on Sunday, taking the third overall World Cup place.

Elsewhere, the Dutch men's and women's teams secured wins in the final day of the team sprint, but neither was enough to take the overall titles.

The Japanese team won the overall ladies World Cup, ahead of Netherlands and Russia, while Canada took the men’s team crown, ahead of Germany in second and the Dutch in third.

Nao Kodaira left the rest of the field behind to seal her Women's 500m World Cup title in style for Japan, with compatriots Maki Tsuji and Erina Kamiya finishing second and third overall.

Dai Dai Ntab took the men's 500m title for the Netherlands, to overhaul Russia's Ruslan Murashov in the standings and take the World Cup title, with another Dutchman, Ronald Mulder, ending up in third.

Sportsbeat 2017