Canadian speed skater Bloemen breaks decade-old world record in men's 5,000
31-year-old finishes race in 6:01.86 to topple mark set by Sven Kramer in 2007
Canada's Ted-Jan Bloemen set a new world record in the men's 5,000-metre at the speed skating World Cup on Sunday in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The 31-year-old from Calgary raced to gold in 6 minutes and 1.86 seconds.
The previous record of 6:03.32 was set by Dutch skater Sven Kramer just over 10 years ago on Nov. 17, 2007 in Calgary.
"I always looked up to that old world record," Bloemen said.
"I saw the others skating 6:07 in the races before me, so I knew that the ice was faster than Calgary last week. And I had this world record in the back of my head the whole week, but breaking it by this margin really came as a surprise. This is one of my best races ever, together with my 10,000 world record."
Germany's Patrick Beckert took silver in 6:07.02, while his teammate Moritz Geisreiter rounded out the podium in 6:07.31.
On the women's side, Japan's Nao Kodaira finished in 1 minute,12.09 seconds in the women's 1000, her third race victory in three days.
American Brittany Bowe held the previous record of 1:12.18. Japan's Miho Takagi was second in 1:12.63, and Russia's Yekaterina Shikhova followed in 1:13.23.
Russia's Denis Yuskov won the men's 1,000 in 1:06.92. Yuskov edged Dutchman skater Koen Verweij, who finished in 106.94. Russia's Pavel Kulizhnikov followed in 1:06.96.
Russia's Natalia Voronina took the women's 3,000 in 3:57.70. The Czech Republic's Martina Sablikova was second in 3:57.84, and Germany's Claudia Pechstein finished third in 3:58.69.
With files from the Associated Press