Bowe beats Japanese speedskaters to set 1000m world record

WASHINGTON: American speedskater Brittany Bowe set a women’s 1,00-meter world record of 1min 11.610secs on Saturday at a World Cup race in Salt Lake City.

When the day began, the world record was 1:12.09 and belonged to Japan’s Nao Kodaira from a 2017 effort at the same Utah Olympic Oval.Japan’s Miho Takagi broke the world record with a time of 1:11.713 to take the lead in the competition. But the mark was short-lived as Bowe followed with her record skate on home ice, shattering her prior personal best of 1:12.180 from 2015 on the same 2002 Olympic Oval. Kodaira finished third, completing the podium in 1:11.776.

Bowe is completing her first full season at the top level since suffering a concussion in a 2016 training accident.Other world records fell Saturday as well. Dutchman Kjeld Nuis won the men’s 1,000m title in 1:06.183, breaking the decade-old world record of 1:06.42 set by American Shani Davis on the same oval.