Irene Schouten and Nils van der Poel claim world Allround titles

Beijing 2022 heroes Irene Schouten and Nils van der Poel took home the Allround trophies as the World Speed Skating Championships Hamar 2022 drew to a close on Sunday (6 March).

After her three golds in Beijing, Dutch star Schouten needed a strong showing in the closing 5000m to secure her first Allround title.

Takagi Miho led overnight and extended her lead thanks to victory in the 1500m on Sunday.

But a personal best of 7:01.97 in the 5000m was not enough for Japan’s most decorated female Olympian to hold off Schouten who, after her fifth in the 1500m, took second in the finale behind Czech great Martina Sablikova.

Schouten finished with a score of 158.974 to beat Takagi (159.305) with another Dutchwoman, Antoinette de Jong (159.798), taking bronze after winning two bronze medals in Beijing.

Like Schouten, Swedish long-distance specialist van der Poel produced a 500m personal best on Saturday to put him on track for gold.

Patrick Roest led after the opening day and went further clear after his second place in the 1500m behind Belgium's Olympic mass start gold medallist Bart Swings.

Van der Poel was 10th in the 1500m and needed to beat Roest by 21.7 seconds in the 10,000m - one of his gold medal events from Beijing - to take the title.

He was more than up to the task, clocking 12:41.56 to smash Sven Kramer's 13-year-old track record by nine seconds.

Roest was over 44 seconds back in fifth place but that was enough for silver with Swings taking bronze.

Van der Poel's final score of 148.696 saw him secure Sweden’s first Allround world title since Göran Claeson in 1973.

Roest was second (149.836) with Swings (150.218) taking the bronze.

Women's Sprint

Men's Sprint

Kai Verbij, Netherlands

Haavard Lorentzen, Norway

Women's