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Canadian Bloemen ends Dutch dominance in Pyeongchang Games speed skating

By Xinhua
Ted-Jan Bloemen of Canada celebrates with a national flag after setting an Olympic record of 12:39.77 mins to win the gold medal of the men's 10,000m speed skating Thursday at the Gangneung Oval in Gangneung, South Korea. Photo by Andrew Wong/UPI
Ted-Jan Bloemen of Canada celebrates with a national flag after setting an Olympic record of 12:39.77 mins to win the gold medal of the men's 10,000m speed skating Thursday at the Gangneung Oval in Gangneung, South Korea. Photo by Andrew Wong/UPI | License Photo

Feb. 15 (UPI) -- Canada's Ted-Jan Bloemen ended Dutch skaters' dominance of gold medals Thursday in the Pyeongchang Games speed skating competitions men's 10,000 meters.

Bloemen, the runner-up to Sven Kramer in Sunday's men's 5,000m, clocked 12 minutes and 39.77 seconds for the victory, breaking the Olympic record of 12:44.45 held by defending champion Jorrit Bergsma of the Netherlands.

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"It's going to take a while for all this to sink in. It's hard to say what's going through my mind. It's been very emotional," said Bloemen. "It's the biggest stage I've ever been on and to win here is the highest you can get."

With the victory, Bloemen became the second Canadian to win an Olympic title in an individual men's speed skating event behind Gaetan Boucher, the 1,000m and 1,500m gold medalist at the Sarajevo Games in 1984.

"We've worked towards this competition for so long with my team. I'm just so proud of them that we made it happen today. It's amazing," he added.

Bergsma took the silver in a time of 12:41.98 and Italian Nicola Tumolero came in third at 12:54.32.

Before Thursday's race, Dutch skaters had swept all five previous gold medals on offer at the Pyeongchang Games.

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