Nuis claims men's 1,500m gold in speed skating World Cup

MINSK - World record holder Kjeld Nuis of the Netherlands beat Denis Yuskov from Russia and teammate Thomas Krol to win the men's 1,500 meters race in the speed skating World Cup that concluded here on Sunday.

Nuis, the bronze medal winner in Saturday's men's 1,000m, clocked one minute and 46.223 seconds for the title. Yuskov came in second on 1:46.456 while Krol, who had captured the men's 1,000m gold on Saturday, took home the bronze with a time of 1:46.498.

Chinese skater Ning Zhongyan, the runner-up behind Krol in the men's 1,000m, finished seventh in 1:47.491.

Brittany Bowe of the United States set a tournament record of 1:15.354 to be crowned in the women's 1,000m, followed by Jorien ter Mors of the Netherlands in 1:15.950. The bronze medal went to Yekaterina Shikhova of Russia in 1:15.962.

In the men's 500m, South Korean Kim Jun-ho recorded the fastest time of 34.870 seconds, beating Gao Tingyu of China by 0.04 seconds. Gao finished with a silver ahead of Dai Dai Ntab of the Netherlands, who were third in 34.916.

In the last event of the day and the tournament, Ivanie Blondin of Canada snatched the women's mass start gold while Irene Schouten of the Netherlands and Francesca Lollobrigida from Italy finishing second and third respectively.