Pedersen, Wust, Nuis win speedskating World Cup races

By AP
Published

ERFURT, Germany (AP) Sverre Lunde Pedersen set a track record in Erfurt as he claimed his first 5,000 speedskating World Cup title on Saturday.

The Norwegian finished in 6 minutes, 14.66 seconds to beat Italy's Nicola Tumolero by 1.45 seconds and world record holder Ted-Jan Bloemen of Canada by 2.45.

Ireen Wust of the Netherlands claimed her first World Cup win of the season in the women's 1,500 ahead of teammate Marrit Leenstra and Ida Njatun of Norway.

Dutch skater Kjeld Nuis won the men's 1,000 in 1:08.57, beating compatriot Hein Otterspeer by 0.39, and Finland's Mika Poutala by 0.42.

Havard Holmefjord Lorentzen's fourth place was enough to take the lead in the standings from Kai Verbij, who is recovering from an injury.

Vanessa Herzog won the second women's 500 race in 37.88 seconds, becoming the first female Austrian World Cup winner since Emese Hunyady in 1997.

Czech skater Karolina Erbanova was 0.08 behind, followed by Russia's Olga Fatkulina, 0.40 behind.

Japan's Nao Kodaira, who didn't race in Erfurt, still leads the 500 standings by 145 points from Herzog.

Japan's Miho Takag leads the women's overall standings by 100 points from Kodaira, while Denis Yuskov of Russia leads the men's overall by five points from Verbij.