Richardson wins speedskating World Cup 1000 meters

HEERENVEEN, Netherlands (AP) Heather Richardson equaled the Thialf oval track record to win a 1,000-meter speedskating World Cup race, beating American teammate Brittany Bowe into second place on Saturday.

Richardson finished in 1 minute, 14.63 seconds, five hundredths of a second inside Bowe's time. Li Qishi of China's third place was enough to send her alone to the top of the World Cup standings.

Marrit Leenstra was level with Li in the season standings going into the race but finished a distant eighth.

Olympic champion Sven Kramer led a Dutch sweep in the men's 5,000, winning in 6:12.74, followed by Jorrit Bergsma and Wouter olde Heuvel.

Dutch veteran Bob de Jong was fourth to maintain his lead in the overall standings.

Pavel Kulizhnikov of Russia won the men's 1,000 in 1:08.77, a day after his victory in the first of two 500 races over the weekend. Kjeld Nuis was second, just ahead of fellow Dutchman Hein Otterspeer.

Kulizhnikov has won three of the four 1,000 races this World Cup season. He leads the standings in the 1,000 and 500.

The Netherlands convincingly won the women's team pursuit, finishing in 2:59.69 to beat second-place Germany by more than two seconds; Poland was third.