BEIJING (AP) 鈥� Irene Schouten of the Netherlands completed a speedskating sweep of the women鈥檚 distance events at the Beijing Games, setting another Olympic record Thursday with a victory in the 5,000 meters.
on Saturday, also setting an Olympic mark on the opening day of speedskating at the Ice Ribbon oval.
She was even more dominant in the longest women鈥檚 race with a winning time of 6 minutes, 43.51 seconds. That took down the 20-year-old Olympic mark held by Germany鈥檚 Claudia Pechstein (6:46.91).
No one else was even close. Schouten finished 4.67 seconds ahead of silver medalist Isabelle Weidemann of Canada, while the bronze went to Martina S谩bl铆kov谩 of the Czech Republic (6:50.09).
It was the seventh career medal for S谩bl铆kov谩, making her the most decorated Czech Olympic athlete. She had been tied with cross-country skier Katerina Neumannova.
S谩bl铆kov谩 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 3,000, faded to fourth in 6:51.76.
The same skaters finished in the top four of the 3,000, but the order was juggled a bit.
Weidemann moved up one place from bronze medalist in the previous distance race, while S谩bl铆kov谩 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 speedskating events at the Beijing Games.
It looks like another rout for the Big Orange Machine, which also dominated at the oval in the last two Olympics.
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Paul Newberry, The Associated Press
