Lorentzen anchors Norway to team sprint world title as Dutch take women's event

The sprint action at the World Speed Skating Championships Hamar 2022 was completed on Saturday (5 March) with the Netherlands taking the women's team sprint before hosts Norway claimed the men's version.

The Dutch team comprising Jutta Leerdam, who won the women's sprint title on Friday, 500m specialist Femke Kok and Dione Voskamp, finished with a time of 1:27.42.

Poland took silver in 1:29.09 with Norway (1:34.92) in third.

The men's team sprint concluded proceedings and the home fans were given plenty to cheer as Bjoern Magnussen, Henrik Fagerli Rukke and Haavard Lorentzen completed the 1500m in 1:20.01 to clinch gold.

Poland were second with 1:20.80, just one-hundredth of a second quicker than the Netherlands.

Japan’s most decorated female Olympian, Takagi Miho, leads the way after day one of the women's Allround competition thanks to her victory in the 500m and fifth place in the 3000m.

That gave her a total score of 78.765 to leave her just in front of Dutch star Irene Schouten.

The triple gold medallist from Beijing 2022 was seventh in the 500m and, unsurprisingly, won the 3000m as she did in China to end the day on 78.906.

Her compatriot Antoinette de Jong is in third overall (78.960) after two solid finishes: fifth in the 500m and second in the 3000m.

The women will race in the 1500m and 5000m on Sunday to decide the medals with Schouten expected to come out on top given her proven prowess over longer distances.

On the men's side, Dutchman Patrick Roest, who won two silver medals at Beijing 2022, leads the pack (74.039) after finishing in fourth in the 500m and second in the 5000m.

Sweden's double Olympic champion Nils van der Poel is just behind (74.575) after his 14th in the 500m and victory in the 5000m.

Hom