KOLOMNA, Russia (AP) - Ronald Mulder of the Netherlands won the 500-meter event at the European Speed Skating Championships in 34.80 seconds on Friday, 0.05 seconds ahead of the second- and third-place finishers.
Mulder, who won Olympic bronze at the distance in Sochi, nosed ahead of Finland’s Mika Poutala and Russia’s Pavel Kulizhnikov, who is the world-record holder but has been suffering from a groin injury.
In the women’s 500, Austria’s Vanessa Herzog won in 37.69 seconds. Angelina Golikova of Russia was second with 38.04 and the Czech Republic’s Karolina Erbanova, last year’s overall champion, was third in 38.18.
Denis Yukov or Russia and Dutchman Thomas Krol raced side-by-side in the 1500-meter event and ended with gold and silver. Yukov, the current world silver holder in the distance, finished in 1 minute 44.53 seconds, 0.27 seconds ahead of Krol. Koen Verweij of the Netherlands, who won 1500-meter silver at the Sochi Olympics, finished third in 1:46.40.
Sochi bronze medalist Lotte van Beek of the Netherl;ands won the women’s 1500 in 1:55.52. Russia’s Yekaterina Shikhova was 1.05 seconds slower and Marrit Leenstra of the Netherlands took bronze in 1:56.58.
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