Olympia 2018: Speed skater Takagi wins first mass start gold medal

When Claudia Pechstein started sprinting at the final meters of her seventh winter games, the medals had already been awarded.

The German speed skater has probably missed a surprise success in the last race of her 26 years of Olympic career. Two days after her 46th birthday. At the end of the speed skating competitions in Pyeongchang at the Olympic premiere of the mass start, she finished 13th birthday. Rank.

Gold went to the Japanese Nana Takagi, who relegated the South Korean Kim Bo Reum and Irene Schouten from the Netherlands.

Pechstein’s dream of winning the tenth Olympic medal remains unfulfilled for the time being. More than a quarter of a century after winning 5,000 m bronze medal in Albertville in 1992, the five-time Olympic gold medallist in South Korea had wanted to run on the podium again, but over 3,000 m (9th), 5,000 m (8th) and in the team pursuit (6th), she clearly missed it.

Pechstein was particularly disappointed about the result on her parade track 5000m. In the mass start, she wanted to try to “convert anger over the 5000 m into performance”, as she said before the race.

This proved to be a challenge. The final programme was demanding and tightly timed. The semi-finals and the finals were just under an hour long, with both races leading over 16 laps each.

Pechstein initially played an active role in the final. At the beginning she often stayed at the top. In the decisive phase of the ever faster race, however, Pechstein missed the jump into the escape group, which was the decisive factor in the sprint.

In the semi-finals, Pechstein had previously finished fourth with five points. Before the second intermediate sprint, she benefited from the fall of three rivals and secured her ticket to the final.

The mass start was on the Olympic program for the first time. The races are more dynamic and have to be run much more tactically than the individual courses. The format has proved its worth at world championships and in the World Cup. Pechstein has also had positive experiences and won a World Cup race in Calgary at the beginning of December.

Too bad that South Korea played their seventh winter games. She plans to continue until 2022 in Beijing and only then to end her career. In four years, she’s announcing the end of her career, she said on Thursday. Pechstein would then be almost 50 years old. Qualifying for their eighth games would be a sensation at this age. It does not have a starting place guarantee.