Kolomna / Russia

#EuroSpeed                                 #SpeedSkating

Nicola Tumolero (ITA) won his first major international title when he took gold in the men’s 5000m at the European Single Distance Championships on Saturday. Alexander Rumyantsev (RUS) took silver and Marcel Bosker (NED) grabbed the bronze medal.

GettyImages 901856822 Tumolero

Italy’s Davide Ghiotto set the fastest time with 6 minutes and 29.08 seconds before the ice-cleaning break, despite not pulling through on the final straight.

After the break Rumyantsev raised the bar significantly with 6:18.13 in the sixth pairing.

Tumolero, who had the fastest personal best of the field beforehand, clocked 6:16.85 with ten sub-30 second laps in the seventh pairing.

In the penultimate pairing Bosker managed to maintain a steady pace with 11 sub-31 laps, but it was just a little too slow to challenge Tumolero’s mark. He stopped the clock at 6:20.45.

Bosker’s compatriot Jan Blokhuijsen, the 2014 Olympic silver medalist from Sochi, could not match Tumulero’s lap times in the final pairing either. Battling for gold he had to pay a high prize in the last two laps and Blokhuijsen eventually even lost the fight for a podium spot. He ended up fourth in 6:21.97.