Wang Beixing wins again at speedskating World Cup

Winter Olympic medalist Wang Beixing of China won her second 500 meters race in as many days at the speedskating World Cup on Saturday.

Wang, bronze medalist in 500m at Vancouver Olympics, clocked 38.15 seconds to beat Russia's Olga Fatkulina by 0.06 seconds. Dutch skater Thijsje Oenema was two thousandths of a second behind Fatkulina in third.

Olympic champion Lee Sang-hwa skipped the Erfurt meet but retains the lead in the standings with 800 points, followed by Germany's Jenny Wolf on 611 and American Heather Richardson on 530.

The women's 1,500m saw the Netherlands made a clean sweep as Ireen Wust lift the win in one minute 55.61 seconds, followed by Diane Valkenburg (1:58.32) and Marrit Leenstra (1:58.38).

In the men's event, Dutchman Jan Smeekens claimed his fourth win of the season in 35.06, beating Japanese Joji Kato by one tenth of a second. Another Dutchman, Ronald Mulder, was third, 0.22 back.

Brian Hansen of the United States claimed his first World Cup victory by winning the 1,000m in 1:09.79 to beat Dutchman Stefan Groothuis by five hundredths of a second. Dmitry Lobkov of Russia was third, 0.39 back.