Carlijn Achtereekte Wins 3000m Gold Medal at 2018 Winter Olympics
Carlijn Achtereekte made it a day to remember for the Netherlands on Saturday at the Winter Olympics, as she led home an all-Dutch top three in the women's 3,000-metre speedskating.
Achtereekte posted an early benchmark of three minutes, 59.21 seconds in the long-track event, which proved to be enough for her to earn a shock win. Defending champion Ireen Wust was an agonising 0.08 seconds back in silver, while Antoinette de Jong finished third.
Here are the results from what was a day of high drama in Pyeongchang, as Achtereekte helped her country to a historic haul.
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1. Carlijn Achtereekte (NED): 3:59.21
2. Ireen Wust (NED): 3:59.29
3. Antoinette de Jong (NED): 4:00.02
For the results of the competition in full visit the Pyeongchang website.
Achtereekte Heads Dutch Domination
In the early stages of the event, few competitors were able to put a time in the books that would've contended for a medal. But there was an injection of quality from Achtereekte in the fifth pairing.
The Dutchwoman was the first of all the skaters to break the four-minute mark, posting a time of 3:59.21. That would've been good enough for gold in Sochi four years ago when Wust took top spot.
After a few more pairs went by, in the ninth run Wust took to the track in an attempt to defend the title she won four years ago, with Isabelle Weidemann alongside her.
The defending champion appeared in excellent shape and was quickly below the splits her compatriot had set earlier in the day. However, as her run came to an end, Wust started to struggle and her last lap was sluggish.
As noted by Karthik K, some sloppiness in the final stages ultimately cost her the chance of back-to-back golds:
With 400 metres to go, Wust clocked in at 3:25.65, 1.04 seconds quicker than Achtereekte at that point in the race.
In the remaining pairs there were some big names still to come, but getting close to Achtereekte's time was proving too much of an ask.
De Jong gave it a go and was within touching distance of the leader's splits throughout her four minutes on track. In the end, despite a big late effort, she was only able to finish third, narrowly ahead of the Czech Republic's Martina Sablikova.
It gave Achtereekte a surprise win. After all, as noted by Nick Zaccardi of NBC Sports, the 28-year-old hasn't showcased too much pedigree on the big stage before:
Wust, who won two golds and two silvers at the 2014 Games in Sochi, will be left to lament on her poor last lap, as she appeared to have the gold in her grasp.
However, she will have numerous opportunities to bounce back, with the 1,000-metre and 1,500-metre events still to come in the long track. On this evidence, it's also going to take something remarkable to stop the Dutch winning the ladies' team pursuit in Pyeongchang.
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