Schouten wins 2nd Olympic gold, completes distance sweep

By PAUL NEWBERRY
AP National Writer

BEIJING (AP) — Irene Schouten of the Netherlands completed a speedskating sweep of the women’s distance events at the Beijing Olympics. She set another Olympic record with a victory in the 5,000 meters. Schouten also won the 3,000 in Olympic-record time. She was even more dominant in the longest women’s race with a winning time of 6 minutes, 43.51 seconds. That broke the 20-year-old Olympic mark held by Germany’s Claudia Pechstein. No one else was even close. Schouten finished 4.67 seconds ahead of silver medalist Isabelle Weidemann of Canada. The bronze went to Martina Sáblíková of the Czech Republic.