Gold eluded Dutchman Sven Kramer again, while Canadian Ted-Jan Bloemen beat the Olympic record and won the men's 10,000-meter speed skate at the Pyeongchang Olympic Games on Thursday.
Bloemen flashed across the line in 12 minutes, 39.77 seconds, beating the Olympic record of runner-up Jorrit Bergsma of the Netherlands by 4.68 seconds. The Netherlands-born Canadian was 2.21 seconds ahead of Bergsma, and 14.55 ahead of bronze winner Nicola Tumolero of Italy.
"It was a tough race. I had good rhythm and momentum, I just had to keep it going," Bloemen said. "This is the biggest race of my life and I had to keep pushing to the finish line and I did so."
The 31-year-old Bloemen, competing in his first Olympics, had alredy earned a silver medal here in the 5,000.
"It's the biggest stage I've ever been on, and to win here is the highest you can get," he said. "It's going to take a while for all this to sink in. It's hard to say what's going through my mind."
In the last pairing at Gangneung Oval, Kramer started off well but fell behind the leaders by the half-way point, couldn't recover and finished sixth. The Dutchman, who has yet to win an Olympic 10,000, was looking to sweep the men's long-distance events after winning his third straight Olympic 5,000 on Sunday.
Defending champion Bergsma also surpassed his previous Olympic record, but was quickly upstaged by Bloemen, the world record holder. By preventing Bergsma from repeating as champion, Bloemen became the 22nd different 10,000 champion in 22 Olympics, but only the second Canadian to win the race.
Japan's Ryosuke Tsuchiya, who finished 16th in the 5,000 on Sunday, lost his pairing, but rewrote his national record with a time of 13:10.31. He finished 10th.
