Dutch sweep another skating event

With an Olympic-record time of 12 minutes, 44.45 seconds, Jorrit Bergsma led a clean sweep for The Netherlands in the ten-kilometer speed skating event at the 2014 Olympics. Bergsma beat his compatriots, Sven Kramer and Bob de Jong, by 4.57 and 22.75 seconds respectively. The Dutch have swept four different skating events so far this year. The previous Olympic record, 12:58.55, was set by South Korean Lee Seung-hoon four years ago. Bergsma's time was also reportedly the fastest ever at sea-level.

Kramer had been favored to win the event. Despite posting the fastest time during the 2010 Games in Vancouver, he was disqualified from the event for skating in the wrong lane for eight laps of his race. "He will only get over it if he gets gold in the 10K in Sochi," Kramer's coach, Geert Kuiper, told the Associated Press earlier this month. "If he does not win there, it will only rub more salt into the wound." The Netherlands currently has 20 medals, more than any other nation, of which 19 are for speed skating, and one is for short track.