Canada skaters succeed in pursuit of team gold

Canada held off a spirited United States comeback to win the men's speed skating team pursuit gold.

And the Netherlands broke Canada's Olympic record to beat Norway in their bronze medal race and win bronze in a time of three minutes, 39.95 seconds.

In the women's event, Germany fought back to beat Japan to the gold.

The Japanese trio were leading by 1.72 seconds with just two of the eight laps left, but the defending champions came through to win by 0.02 seconds.

The trio of Daniela Anschuetz-Thoms, Stephanie Beckert and Katrin Mattscherodt made up one second on the final lap at the Richmond Oval to finish in a time of 3:02.82.

In team pursuit, the clock stops when the final skater crosses the line and that proved crucial in the women's race for bronze.

Poland won it after America's Catherine Raney-Norman faded towards the end of the race and although her team-mates crossed the finish line first, the Poles came across together to win their first medal in the sport.

Canada's Mathieu Giroux, Lucas Makowsky and Denny Morrison recorded a time of 3:41.37 seconds, to win men's event by 0.20 seconds.

They held a lead of more than half a second at one point, but the Americans fought back well in the closing laps.

The Dutch were always ahead as they repeated their bronze medal performance from four years ago in a time that would have won the final by more than one second.

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