Pechstein coy over PyeongChang ambitions despite 5000m gold
BySportsbeat
Published 19/11/2017 at 17:53 GMT
Germany's five-time Olympic champion Claudia Pechstein shrugged off any feelings of old age as she skated her way to gold following an epic 5000m battle at the latest Speed Skating World Cup.
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Image credit: Eurosport
Pechstein, 45, was one of three skaters, along with Irene Schouten and Martina Sablikova, to stay under seven minutes.
But she held the edge over her rivals, clocking 6:56.60 minutes to break the track record in Stavanger and take top spot on the medal rostrum.
It was the German's first World Cup victory since Seoul in November 2014.
"I'm still very happy," she said. "I'm happy with every time I won because it's unbelievable to be on top at my age.
"Some of the other athletes could be my daughters. It's good to still be up there. I'm really proud of myself."
"It's only November so we shouldn't talk about February (when the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games begin) just yet. But I was born in February and I know that I'm always good in that month."
Blondin was on gold-medal pace heading into the final lap but her 34.4 seconds couldn't match Pechstein's final lap of 33.2 seconds and she had to settle for silver, albeit it does leave her top of the combined 3000/5000m World Cup ranking.
"I was really tired and rather than keeping the focus on my technique, I was trying too hard to go as fast as I can," she said. "In Speed Skating if you try too hard, you end up going slower."
Meanwhile in the men's 10,000m, it was Dutch skater Sven Kramer who comfortably came out on top for the 100 points, clocking a time of 12:50.97.
That was over a second and half quicker than Canada's Ted-Jan Bloemen with Kramer's teammate Erik-Jan Kooiman the third quickest, albeit 6.16 slower than the victor.
Canada did have a victory to shout about in the men's team sprint as they came through ahead of Norway while Korea were the ones to pip the Norwegians in the ladies' team sprint.
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