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Koreans dominate at speedskating worlds

March 25, 2013 - 19:14 By Korea Herald
Korea’s Lee Sang-hwa celebrates her 500-meter victory. (AP-Yonhap News)
SOCHI, Russia (AP) ― Olympic champions Mo Tae-bum and Lee Sang-hwa of South Korea retained their 500-meter titles at the speedskating world championships Sunday.

Mo took the men’s crown at the season-ending event, finishing with a combined time of 69.76 seconds over the two heats to edge Japan’s Joji Kato by .06 seconds. 
Korea’s Mo Tae-bum competes in the 500-meter race. (Yonhap News)

World sprint champion Jan Smeekens of the Netherlands, who had the fastest time of 34.80 seconds in the first heat, was fifth in the second heat to place third.

In the women’s event, Lee dominated both of her heats to win in a combined time of 75.34 seconds.

Chinese sprinter Wang Beixing was .69 second behind in second. Russia’s Olga Fatkulina edged out four-time champion Jenny Wolf of Germany by .05 second to finish in 76.08 for third.

Dutch skaters retained their titles in the team pursuit races.

The men’s team of Sven Kramer, Koen Verweij and Jan Blokhuijsen had a time of 3 minutes, 42.03 seconds to finish the 6,000-meter event ahead of South Korea and Poland.