Jackson wins 4th World Cup speedskating title of season

Fri, Dec 3, 2021
Other News (AP)

KEARNS, Utah (AP) - Erin Jackson won her fourth World Cup speedskating gold medal of the season Friday, taking the 500 meters on home ice at the Utah Olympic Oval.

Skating in front of family and friends, the 29-year-old American finished in 36.809 seconds, breaking the American record of 36.90 set by Heather Richardson in a World Cup meet at the oval in 2013.

"It's definitely confidence-building," Jackson said. "I was just happy to do a good one for the fans."

Jackson finished 0.12 seconds ahead of world champion Angelina Golikova of Russia, who clocked 36.935. Femke Kok of the Netherlands was third at 37.017, which broke the Dutch national record.

Defending Olympic champion Nao Kodaira of Japan was sixth.

Jackson swept both 500 races at the season-opening meet in Poland, becoming the first Black woman to win a World Cup speedskating event. She added another victory in Norway two weeks ago.

Jackson had no trouble with the high-altitude ice at Utah Olympic Oval, where she trains with the U.S. national team. She said the key to her win was "turning everything off and going for it."

In the men's 500, Japan took the top two spots. Yamato Matsui won in 34.048 and Wataru Monshige was second at 34.091. Laurent Dubreuil of Canada was third.

Irene Schouten of the Netherlands won the women's 3,000 in 3 minutes, 52.899 seconds. She just missed lowering the world mark of 3:52.02 set by Martina Sablikova of the Czech Republic on the same ice in March 2019.

Sablikova finished fifth Friday.

Schouten's teammate, Antoinette de Jong, was second at 3:55.194. De Jong was the bronze medalist at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics. Finishing third was Ragne Wiklund of Norway.

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