Orange crush: Dutch win 22nd speedskating medal, beating South Korea in men’s team pursuit
SOCHI, Russia – The Netherlands claimed its 22nd speedskating medal of the Sochi Olympics on Saturday, beating South Korea in the final of men’s team pursuit with an Olympic record time.
The Koreans actually led early in the eight-lap race and were down by only 0.38 seconds at the midway point.
But the Dutch team of Sven Kramer, Jan Blokhuijsen and Koen Verweij simply had too depth and stamina for the Koreans, pulling away to win with a time of 3 minutes, 37.71 seconds. That broke the previous Olympic record of 3:39.95 set by the Dutch in the bronze-medal race at the Vancouver Olympics.
The Netherlands won its first Olympic title in pursuit after falling short with heavily favoured teams in 2006 and 2010.
Poland took the bronze, rallying to beat Canada.
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