The German speed skaters have at the start of the men’s competitions at the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing Missed Top 10. Patrick Beckert from Erfurt ran over 5000 meters on Sunday in 6:19.58 minutes and took eleventh place. Felix Rijhnen from Frankfurt/Main was 13th in his Olympic debut in 6:19.86 minutes.
Thanks to a brilliant final round, top favorite Nils van der Poel from Sweden won gold. The world record holder won in 6:08.84 minutes, beating the four-year-old Olympic record set by Dutchman Sven Kramer by almost a second. Second was European champion Patrick Roest from the Netherlands in 6:09.31 minutes ahead of Norway’s Hallgeir Engebraaten (6:09.88). The 35-year-old Kramer, Olympic champion over 5000 meters in 2010, 2014 and 2018, was only ninth in 6:17.04 minutes.