Schouten sweeps distance events for dominant Dutch

Irene Schouten of the Netherlands completed a speed skating sweep of the women's distance events at the Beijing Winter Games, setting another Olympic record on Thursday with victory in the 5,000m.

Schouten won the 3,000m on Saturday, also setting an Olympic mark on the opening day of speed skating at the Ice Ribbon oval.

She was even more dominant in the longest women's race with a winning time of 6 minutes and 43.51 seconds. That took down the 20-year-old Olympic mark held by Germany's Claudia Pechstein (6:46.91).

No one else was even close. Schouten finished 4.67 sec ahead of silver medalist Isabelle Weidemann of Canada, while the bronze went to Martina Sablikova of the Czech Republic (6:50.09).

It was the seventh career medal for Sablikova, making her the most decorated Czech Olympic athlete of all time. She had been tied with cross-country skier Katerina Neumannova.

Sablikova was the most recent skater to pull off the 3,000-5,000 double at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

Schouten is now the sixth skater to win both events.

Francesca Lollobrigida of Italy, silver medalist in the 3,000m, faded to fourth in 6:51.76.

The same skaters finished in the top four of the 3,000m, but the order was juggled a bit.

Weidemann moved up one place from bronze medalist in the previous distance race, while Sablikova improved from fourth to third to claim a place on the podium.

The top spot was the same.

Schouten gave the Netherlands its fourth gold medal in five speed skating events at Beijing 2022.

It looks like another rout for the Big Orange Machine, which also dominated at the oval in the last two Olympics.

Agencies via Xinhua