Salt Lake City, Dec 4 (UNI/Xinhua) Nils van der Poel of Sweden broke the world record to win the men's 5,000 meters gold medal on the first day of the speed skating World Cup here on Friday.
"It did not come easy today," van der Poel said after crossing the line in six minutes and 01.56 seconds, 0.30 seconds faster than the previous record set by Canadian Ted-Jan Bloemen in Salt Lake City in 2017. "The race plan was to open below 20s, and do 8.5s (28.5 lap times), and take it down from there. We went for 6:02, that was the schedule."
Having shattered the 10,000m record last season in Heerenveen, the Netherlands, Van der Poel now holds the world record in both long distances, while he has more ambitions.
"It would be cool to be the first guy to cross the six minutes. That's the coolest limit right now, the 1:40 in the 1,500m, and the six minutes in the 5,000m," he said.
Patrick Roest of the Netherlands finished with the silver in 6:04.41 and Davide Ghiotto of Italy took his career first World Cup podium with bronze in 6:07.27.
Japan had a 1-2 finish in the men's 500m with Yamato Matsui and Wataru Morishige taking gold and silver ahead of Laurent Dubreuil of Canada.
In the women's 500m, home skater Erin Jackson was crowned with a winning time of 36.809 seconds. Angelina Golikova of Russia settled for the second place in 36.935 ahead of the bronze medal winner Femke Kok of the Netherlands, who finished in 37.017.
Irene Schouten of the Netherlands snatched the gold of the women's 3,000m in three minutes and 52.899 seconds with the silver and bronze going to her teammate Antoinette de Jong and Ragne Wiklund of Norway respectively.
UNI/XINHUA RNJ