Speed skating-Leerdam wins 1,000m gold in Dutch one-two with Kok at Milano Cortina

MILAN, Feb 9 : Jutta Leerdam stormed to 1,000m gold at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics on Monday, spearheading a Dutch sweep of the top two places ahead of Femke Kok as they opened the Netherlands' medal account at the Games.

Japan's most decorated female Olympian, Miho Takagi, took the bronze at the Milano Speed Skating Stadium.

Leerdam - the 2020 and 2023 world single-distance champion in the 1,000m - stopped the clock at an Olympic-record time of one minute 12.31 seconds, finishing 0.28 seconds clear of Kok to give the Netherlands their first gold medal of the Games.

Competing at her second Games and with fiance Jake Paul watching from the stands, the 27-year-old sprint specialist secured her second Olympic medal, adding to the 1,000m silver she won at Beijing 2022.

Drawn in the 15th and final pair, Leerdam skated in the outer lane alongside defending Olympic champion Takagi.

Four years ago in Beijing, Leerdam had to settle for silver behind Takagi after a mis-stroke in the final corner, but there was no repeat of that disappointment this time.

As she crossed the line and saw her Olympic-record time flash on the scoreboard, Leerdam burst into tears, overwhelmed with emotion.

"I couldn't believe it, but I was also so tired," Leerdam said. "It was hard to feel something. I couldn't really stand, I couldn't really see, I couldn't do anything.

"I knew that if during the race I would feel tired, I wasn't allowed to feel tired. I told myself, 'You have 80 years to recover from this, you can feel tired after. You don't want to live with that regret. You fought so hard for this'.

"When I saw that green (colour) next to my name, I thought, 'Oh my, this is a dream come true'. I really couldn't believe it and I still can't. That I