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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Jan Smeekens, Nao Kodaira win 500-meter speedskating titles

Winner Jan Smeekens of the Netherlands competes during the men’s 500-meter race of the ISU world single distances speed skating championships at Gangneung Oval in Gangneung, South Korea, Friday, Feb. 10, 2017. The world cup competition is also a test event for the upcoming Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics. (Ahn Young-joon / Associated Press)
Associated Press

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea – Olympic silver medalist Jan Smeekens of the Netherlands won the 500-meter title at the world single distance speedskating championships on the 2018 Olympic track on Friday.

Smeekens clocked 34.58 seconds to finish 0.08 seconds ahead of Nico Ihle of Germany. Ruslan Murashov of Russia was third in 34.76.

Nao Kodaira of Japan took the women’s 500 title in 37.13, 0.35 seconds ahead of Lee Sang-hwa of South Korea. Yu Jing of China was third in 37.57.

The Netherlands won the men’s team pursuit in 3:40.66, with New Zealand second. The Dutch also won the women’s team pursuit in 2:55.85, 0.64 seconds ahead of Japan. South Korea was third in 3:02.95.