The Dutch men have again swept the board in the long-track speed skating competition at the Sochi Winter Olympics – this time in the 10,000m.

Jorrit Bergsma, who is 28, took the gold in a new Olympic record of 12 minutes 44.45. Sven Kramer, who won gold in the 5,000m last week, took the silver and Bob de Jong the bronze.

Kramer had been hot favourite to take the title after being disqualified at the Vancouver games for a wrong lane change.

Withdrawal

Today’s race was not without controversy when Russian favourite Ivan Skobrev and the entire Norwegian team pulled out. The Norwegians said they wanted to concentrate on the pursuit event later this week.

The Dutch have now swept the board four times: the men won all medals in the 5,000m and 500m while the women took all the podium places in the 1,500m.

The Dutch men have now won 12 of the 15 long-track speed skating medals. The final event is the team pursuit, which takes place on February 21.

See also: Dutch speed skating success is bad for the sport