Olympic Speedskating Results 2018: Japan Wins Women's Mass Start Gold
Japan won gold in the women's mass start speedskating at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, on Saturday, thanks to Nana Takagi's superb late sprint to finish ahead of South Korea's Kim Bo-Reum and Irene Schouten of the Netherlands, who had to settle for silver and bronze, respectively.
Meanwhile, Estonia's Saskia Alusalu won all three intermediate sprints to lock up a top-four finish.
Takagi finished on 60 points, 20 ahead of Kim and 40 better than Schouten, per the Games' official website. Her late run for gold capped a terrific race for an event making its mass start debut at the Olympics.
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Here's the updated the medal tracker:
Earlier, Italy, Canada, the Netherlands, Czech Republic and China all qualified for the final after having skaters in the top three slots during the two semi-finals.
Italy's Francesca Lollobrigida, China's Guo Dan and Canadian Keri Morrison finished in first, second and third respectively in the opening semi-final. The Games' official websiterelayed the full results and list of qualifiers.
China were again in the top three for the second semi-final, as Li Dan finished third. Dutch skater Annouk van der Weijden and Nikola Zdrahalova of the Czech Republic finished above her, while Germany's Claudia Pechstein was in fourth, per the official site.
The stage was set for a closely contested first final at the Olympic level.
It was Alusalu who made the first break with 15 laps to go. She played the role of the "mugger" from the outside to come around the pack and win the first intermediate sprint, making her likely to earn a top-six finish.
Alusalu was still on the front with 12 laps to go as Li applied some pressure. Yet Alusalu guaranteed finishing in the top five by topping the next sprint.
The third and final intermediate sprint was also won by Alusalu, securing her fourth place. It marked the end of the strategy, as skaters started to jostle aggressively for position ahead of the dash for medals.
A lively race saw a group of seven create some distance. Among them, Schouten stole onto the front, but it was Takagi who made the late burst to see Japan over the line to claim gold, with Kim closing in.
There was disappointment for Lollobrigidia and Zdrahalova, who ended the race outside the top six, needing time to dictate their finishing places, with the former edging the latter into seventh.
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