Other Sports : Dutch Woman Tops Skaters in 3,000

Yvonne van Gennip of Holland, who had surgery on her foot less than three months ago, skated a world record Tuesday night to win the women’s 3,000-meter speed skating gold medal in the Winter Olympics at Calgary, Canada.

Van Gennip, 23, made up nearly eight-tenths of a second in the final lap of the 7 1/2-lap race to overtake East Germany’s Andrea Ehrig, the defending gold medalist. Ehrig skated in the first pair and finished in 4 minutes, 12.09 seconds.

But van Gennip skated a 34.86-second final lap to finish in 4:11.94 to take the record and the gold medal.

Ehrig finished with a silver medal, and the bronze went to her East German teammate Gabi Zange in 4:16.92. Zange held the world record before the race of 4:16.76.

However, East Germany’s Karin Kania was eliminated from medal contention in the 3,000 after the fifth pair skated.

With 600 meters to go in the race Kania stumbled ever so slightly and lost precious seconds.

After the race, Kania skated in pain to the infield and appeared to collapse on a bench where trainers and coaches began to massage her legs.

She got up about 10 minutes later and began to walk gingerly around the carpet in the middle of the rink. Kania was not available for comment after the race. She will compete again Friday in the 1,000 meters.

Canadian speed skater Natalie Grenier, fiancee of American Dan Jansen, pulled out of the race because of a bad cold. Grenier, who had hoped to compete in all five distances, finished 11th in the 500 meters race with Jansen cheering her on at rinkside.

Van Gennip, who broke her arm roller-skating last summer, had a small growth surgically removed from her right foot in December.

She returned to training two weeks later and took a third in the European championships last month.

American Mary Docter, a three-time Olympian, skated in the same pair with Zange and finished in a disappointing 4:28.92.

In the first shoot-out in Olympic hockey history, France defeated Norway in a meeting of winless teams to take 11th place in the 12-team tournament.

The score was tied 6-6 after regulation play and the teams went scoreless in a 10-minute sudden death overtime period.

That left the five-man shootout to determine the winner and the first two shooters for each team failed to score.

Finally, France’s Paulin Bordeleau, a former NHL forward, wristed the puck over the glove hand of Norwegian goaltender Vernon Mott.

Patrick Foliot of France then stopped a backhander by Norway’s Arne Billkvam. France’s Derek Haas beat Mott with another wrist shot and when Foliot stopped Tor Eikeland, France had its lone victory, the goal it had set entering the competition.

Wilfred O’Reilly of Britain won the gold medal in the men’s 500-meter race in the short track speed skating, a demonstration event.

While traditional Olympic speed skaters race in two-person heats against the clock, short track competitors race against each other with the first one across the finish line the winner.

O’Reilly was timed in 44.80 seconds, and Mario Vincent of Canada was second in 45.15, and Tatsuyoshi Ishihara of Japan took the bronze in 45.37.

Canada’s Sylvie Daigle won the gold medal in the women’s 1,500-meter race as she took the lead with 1 1-2 laps to go and held on with a winning time of 2:37.61.

Monique Velzeboer of the Netherlands was second in 2:37.77 and Yan Li of China won the bronze in 2:37.92.