Canada’s Ted-Jan Bloemen set a new world record in the men’s 5,000-metre at the speed skating World Cup on Sunday in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The 31-year-old from Calgary raced to gold in 6 minutes and 1.86 seconds.
The previous record of 6:03.32 was set by Dutch skater Sven Kramer just over 10 years ago on Nov. 17, 2007 in Calgary.
Ted-Jan Bloemen breaks world record in men’s 5,000m8:45
“I always looked up to that old world record,” Bloemen said.
“I saw the others skating 6:07 in the races before me, so I knew that the ice was faster than Calgary last week. And I had this world record in the back of my head the whole week, but breaking it by this margin really came as a surprise. This is one of my best races ever, together with my 10,000 world record.”
Germany’s Patrick Beckert took silver in 6:07.02, while his teammate Moritz Geisreiter rounded out the podium in 6:07.31.
On the women’s side, Japan’s Nao Kodaira finished in 1 minute,12.09 seconds in the women’s 1000, her third race victory in three days.
American Brittany Bowe held the previous record of 1:12.18. Japan’s Miho Takagi was second in 1:12.63, and Russia’s Yekaterina Shikhova followed in 1:13.23.
Russia’s Denis Yuskov won the men’s 1,000 in 1:06.92. Yuskov edged Dutchman skater Koen Verweij, who finished in 106.94. Russia’s Pavel Kulizhnikov followed in 1:06.96.
Russia’s Natalia Voronina took the women’s 3,000 in 3:57.70. The Czech Republic’s Martina Sablikova was second in 3:57.84, and Germany’s Claudia Pechstein finished third in 3:58.69.
