Dutch sweep men's 5000m speed skating final; Kramer sets Olympic record

While it was Russian speed skater Denis Yuskov doing the talking before the race, the Netherlands provided the noise Saturday morning, as Sven Kramer -- on the strength of an Olympic record time -- Jan Blokhuijsen, and Jorrit Bergsma swept the men's 5000m speed skating podium. 

The Dutch became the first nation to sweep the event in 50 years; the Norwegians accomplished the feat at the 1964 Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria.

In defense of his Olympic title, Kramer was four hundreds of a second shy of clearing the field by five seconds, rewriting his Olympic record with a time of 6:10.76. The Dutch icon did not catch the pacesetter until the ninth lap, but gained strength while his competitors faltered down the stretch.

With a second-place time of 6:15.71, Blokhuijsen captured his first individual Olympic medal. He previously won a bronze in Vancouver flanking Kramer with the Dutch pursuit team.

Finally, the 28-year-old Bergsma won his first Olympic medal, finishing less than a second behind Blokhuijsen for bronze. 

The aforementioned Yuskov, who let his desires to beat Kramer known ahead of the competition, finished sixth - nine seconds behind the gold medal posting.