Speed skating-Wust retains 1500m for record sixth gold

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Ireen Wust (R) of the Netherlands competes during the women's 1,500m final of speed skating at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 7, 2022. (Xinhua/Wang Fei)

Speed skating legend Ireen Wust from the Netherlands bagged her third Olympic gold medal from the women's 1,500m event with the latest at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics on Monday.

The most decorated Dutch Olympian clocked a winning time of one minute and 53.28 seconds, lowering the previous Olympic record of 1:53.51 set by her compatriot Jorien ter Mors at Sochi 2014.

"It's really hard to describe. A lot of emotions, especially the good ones," said 35-year-old Wust on her winning the sixth Olympic gold.

She now became the speed skater with most Olympic gold medals, sharing the record with Lidiya Skoblikova, who won six golds from three Olympic Winter Games from 1960-1968.

The victory also made Wust the first person to win three golds non-consecutively, after her previous two golds in 2010 and 2018. Besides the 1,500m event, Wust won three other gold medals from the 3,000m in 2006 and 2014, as well as the team pursuit in 2014.

World record holder Miho Takagi from Japan seized the silver medal in 1:53.72, losing to Wust once again after her runner-up finish by 0.20 seconds four years ago. Antoinette de Jong of the Netherlands finished third in 1:54.82.

Two-time Olympian Han Mei finished 11th with 1:56.08, and her Chinese compatriots Yin Qi and Ahenaer Adake took the 15th and 17th place respectively.

Men's 1,500m is scheduled on Tuesday, when Ning Zhongyan will strive to become the first Chinese male speed skater to win an Olympic gold.

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