Lightning Strikes Twice as Pechstein Wins

Gunda Niemann-Stirnemann of Germany can tell it’s the Olympics.

The speedskater to beat in any women’s distance race set a world speed record and tied a Winter Games record by winning her eighth individual medal Friday in the women’s 5,000 meter speedskating race.

But she couldn’t beat teammate Claudia Pechstein.

Again.

Pechstein, skating in the last pair, finished 4/100ths of a second faster than Niemann-Stirnemann, the world-record holder going into the competition, winning the gold medal and relegating her teammate to second, just as she had four years ago at Lillehammer, Norway.

Skating in the second-to-last pair, Niemann-Stirnemann became the first woman to finish the event in less than seven minutes, clocking 6 minutes 59.65 seconds.

“When I watched Gunda race, I thought, ‘OK, I’ll have to go for the silver because her time is unattainable,’ ” said Pechstein, who then went out and beat it, cutting more than 14 seconds off her previous best time.

Pechstein moved ahead of Niemann-Stirnemann’s pace on the ninth of the 12 1/2 laps, finished strong, then looked in amazement at her time, 6:59.61.

“The last 100 meters, I was thinking, ‘Maybe it’s not so far to Gunda’s time,’ ” Pechstein said. “‘Maybe it is possible to break this one.’ And you see what happened. . . . I found my pace, I had good laps and I had a good finish. The last laps were really hard. My legs were hurting.”

Watching Pechstein’s finish, Niemann-Stirnemann, who has won eight individual medals, shrugged and smiled.

“At some stage, you should just sit back and say ‘OK, I had the great race,’ ” she said. “The gold in the 3,000 was a dream and winning two silvers [the other in the 1,500] was good. I can’t complain.”

Her personal coach, Stephan Gneupel, said his skater might well have won if she had skated last.

“If Gunda had started after Claudia, the result might have been different,” he said. “The two have got similar ability but I believe Gunda could have done better.”

Niemann-Stirnemann is 31 but said she was not necessarily through with skating, or the Olympics.

“My race showed me I’m in very good shape and can still be in the zone,” she said. “That gives me great confidence.”

Pechstein, 25, has firm plans to return.

“I do think it will be possible in the next Olympics to win a few more medals,” she said. “I’m still at the right age to do that.”

One skater who apparently won’t return, however, is bronze medalist Lyudmila Prokasheva of Kazakhstan, who finished in 7:11.14, then announced that she was through.

“Today I achieved what I wanted to achieve and now I’m going,” she said. “It’s getting more and more difficult to train in my country. The situation there is difficult and I’ve always tried to do my best. After winning this medal here I think that will be the end of my career as an athlete.”

Americans Kirstin Holum and Jennifer Rodriguez finished seventh and 10th, respectively, Rodriguez becoming the first U.S. woman in 18 years to skate four events. She also competed in the 1,000, 1,500 and 3.000-meter events, finishing an unexpected fourth in the 3,000.

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MEDALISTS

Speedskating

WOMEN’S 5,000 METERS

Gold: Claudia Pechstein, Germany

Silver: Gunda Niemann-Stimemann, Germany

Bronze: Lyudmila Prokasheva, Kazakhstan