Ireen Wust skates to World gold at Olympic Oval
BySportsbeat
Updated 09/02/2017 at 22:12 GMT
Ireen Wust marked one year to go until the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympic Winter Games by winning the inaugural race at the Gangneung Olympic Oval at the World Single Distances Speed Skating Championships.
Ireen Wust of the Netherlands celebrates on the podium
Image credit: Reuters
The Olympic champion was one of the favourites heading in the ladies 3000m on Thursday and did not disappoint on the ice.
She started with a superfast first full lap of 29.8 seconds before maintaining her speed to become the first to break the four minute barrier at 3:59.05.
That was enough to take the title back off Martina Sablikova of the Czech Republic who could only clock a time of 3:59.65 while Antoinette De Jong completed the podium in third for the Netherlands.
For Wust, it is a third 3000m world title after gold medals in 2011 and 2013 although Sablikova remains out front on four.
Meanwhile, Sven Kramer held off the best efforts of Jorrit Bergsma to win his eighth 5000m world title.
The defending champion and his long term challenger were pair mates and fought a tight battle with Kramer stopping the clock at 6:06.82 to Bergsma's 6:09.33.
Kramer said: "Jorrit is a strong skater, but Ted-Jan Bloemen won the 5000m at the last World Cup in Berlin and there's a couple more skaters who can do well."
One of those other skaters was New Zealand's Peter Michael who finished third in a time of 6:11.67.
Friday sees the continuation of the competition with the men's and ladies 500m and team pursuit races.
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