Claudia Pechstein and the German speed skaters said goodbye to the team competition of the Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang with a disappointment.
In the race for fifth place, Pechstein lost one day before her 46th birthday. Birthday with Roxanne Dufter and Gabriele Hirschbichler in 3:04.67 minutes the duel with China was clear (3:00,04). Pechstein and Co. had only finished sixth (3:02,65) in the placing races on Monday and had missed the semi-finals.
The favourite teams from the Netherlands and Japan will compete for gold on Wednesday evening. Canada and the USA are fighting for bronze. The men’s Olympic victory will be decided between South Korea and Norway, who eliminated the Netherlands by superstar Sven Kramer in the semi-finals in an Olympic record (3:37.08). The Oranje runners meet New Zealand in the race for third place.
For Pechstein it was the penultimate appearance at her seventh winter games after the previous runs over 3000m and 5000m. The five-time Olympic gold medallist is planning to compete in the first Olympic mass start on Saturday. Despite a surprising World Cup victory this season, she is only an outsider there.
But that is not the end of your Olympic career. After the 5000 m race, Pechstein had announced that he would continue to run until the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing.