Kramer completes hat-trick in men's 5,000m Olympic speed skating

PYEONGCHANG, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- Sven Kramer of the Netherlands completed an Olympic hat-trick in the men's 5,000 meters here on Sunday.

Following his consecutive victories in this event at Vancouver and Sochi, the Dutch skater claimed the gold medal again at the Gangneung Oval in an Olympic record time of six minutes and 9.76 seconds, becoming the first male speed skater to win three consecutive Olympic title in a single event.

"It's amazing. Every four years I still have progression, and that's nice to see," said Kramer after breaking his own old Olympic record of 6:10.76. "I've won a lot and lost a lot, but this is really special for me."

It was also a record eighth Olympic medal of Kramer, who has surpassed Clas Thunberg of Finland and Ivar Ballangrud from Norway on seven.

Canadian world-record holder Ted-Jan Bloemen took home the silver in 6:11.616 and the bronze medal went to Norway's Lunde Pedersen in 6:11.618.

Bloemen was satisfied with the silver.

"I'm happy with my fight. I'm a little bit getting over losing first place. Obviously, I'd rather have won this race but, after all, being on the podium at the Olympics is amazing, and I think I'll be really proud in a little bit of time," said Bloemen.

"I started a little bit too fast maybe, but it came really easy and the skating was going really well," said Bloemen. "But then a couple of laps in, I couldn't find a really good rhythm or flow or however you want to call it, and it turned into a really tough fight and a big struggle. I'm really happy that I could come through at the end and beat my (pair) opponent (Lunde Pedersen) by two-thousandths of a second," he added. Enditem