Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Poland

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The Netherlands secured the Team Sprint World Cup as they came second in the last race of the season in Tomaszów Mazowiecki on Sunday. Norway won the race to claim their first Team Sprint gold medal of the season, while Marcel Bosker (NED) edged out two Russian rivals to take gold in the 10,000m.

Norway win Team Sprint as Netherlands seal World Cup title

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Second place in Tomaszów Mazowiecki was enough to seal the Team Sprint World Cup for the Dutch men © International Skating Union (ISU)

Norway’s men won gold in the Team Sprint for the first time this season as the Netherlands did enough to secure top spot in the overall rankings.

The Norwegians, fourth in the rankings after two races, took on third-placed Canada in the fourth pairing. Their line-up of Bjørn Magnussen, Henrik Fagerli Rukke and Olympic 500m Champion Håvard Lorentzen clocked 1:21.27.

The Netherlands (Michel Mulder, Dai Dai Ntab, Kai Verbij) took silver in 1.21.43 and Russia (Ruslan Murashov, Alexey Yesin, Viktor Mushtakov) grabbed the bronze medal in 1:21.74.

The Canada team of Alex Boisvert-LacroixGilmore Junio and Laurent Dubreuil finished last after Boisvert-Lacroix crashed, but the Norwegians were not affected.

"I saw one of the guys lying down when we were in our second lap", Rukke said.

Lorentzen added: "It's a little bit scary when he's lying there - we could also crash. But I wasn't being more cautious because I did the last turn and my legs were blown up (in pain), so I was just hanging in there."

The Netherlands, who won the first race in Obihiro and came second twice, took home the overall Team Sprint World Cup with 336 points. Norway (304) came second and Russia (296) third.

Bosker (NED) edges out Russians in 10,000m

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Bosker climbed to second place in the long distance World Cup ranking with 137 points © International Skating Union

Marcel Bosker won the Men's 10,000m without skating the fastest time of the day. His compatriot Jorrit Bergsma, who started in the B Division because he did not attend the first two World Cups, had already clocked a track record of 13:14.95 in the morning.

Bosker, skating without the advantage of the B Division quartet start, set 13:25.27 to take gold in the A Division. Russians Aleksandr Rumyantsev and Danila Semerikov came second and third in 13:26.76 and 13:28.71.

Bosker skated after Semerikov and was trailing his Russian rival for most of the race. He was still 2.47 seconds behind at the 9600m split, but in that final part of the race a tiring Semerikov had posted 37.5 for the last lap. Bosker managed to accelerate into a 31.6 final lap to overtake the Russian. Rumyantsev, who skated after Bosker, was also ahead of the Dutchman's split times for most of the race but faded in the final laps.

"I did not want to look at what the others did, I just wanted to skate a steady race by myself," Bosker said.

"I was aiming for 13:30 with 32.4 lap times - that's something I've done before. I was able to accelerate towards the end, which was nice, and I knew I could beat the Russian (Semerikov) because he had a bad final lap.

"This (gold medal) is very good. I had not expected it because the 10,000m is not my distance. I just wanted to collect enough points to be able to start in the A Division in the 5000m in Heerenveen (next week)."

Bosker climbed to second place in the long distance World Cup ranking with 137 points. In the absence of previous World Cup leader Patrick Roest (NED), Rumyantsev took over the top position with 144 points. Sverre Lunde Pedersen (NOR), who finished fifth in Tomaszów Mazowiecki, is third with 134 points.

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