Schouten gives Dutch 1st speedskating gold at Olympics

By PAUL NEWBERRY
AP Sports Writer

BEIJING (AP) — Irene Scouten gave the mighty Dutch a gold medal in the first speedskating event of the Beijing Games. She broke a 20-year-old Olympic record in the women’s 3,000 meters. Schouten skated in the last of 10 pairs and turned in a blazing final lap to post the winning time of 3 minutes, 56.93 seconds. That broke the previous Olympic mark of 3:57.70 set by Germany’s Claudia Pechstein at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games. Pechstein became the oldest female athlete in Olympic history at 49. The German finished last out of 20 skaters. Italy’s Francesca Lollobrigida grabbed the silver and Canada’s Isabelle Weidemann took bronze.