Dutchman Sven Kramer and American Heather Richardson seized command of their title chases after the first day of the World Allround Speedskating Championships at Calgary Olympic Oval.
Kramer won the 5,000 metres in 6mins 7.49 secs, 4.28 seconds ahead of Norway’s Sverre Lunde Pedersen, while Richardson took the women’s 500 in 37.11 with Canadian Kali Christ second in 38.67 and Dutch star Ireen Wust third in 38.73.
Kramer, who has won a record six world allround crowns, won 5,000m Olympic gold in 2010 at Vancouver and 2014 at Sochi and captured his most recent of six 5,000m world titles last month in his homeland.
After two of four events in a contest where the lowest point total wins, Kramer had 72.949 to 73.004 for Russian Denis Yuskov — who finished second in the 500 and third in the 5,000 — and 73.047 for Pedersen.
Canada’s Denny Morrison, who won the 500 in 34.98 seconds to 35.64 for Yuskov, was fourth in the allround on 73.481.
Richardson won the 500m crown at last month’s world single distance championships in the Netherlands and was second at 1,000 and third at 1,500.
Czech Martina Sablikova won the women’s 3,000 in 3:55.10 with Wust second, 5.24 seconds back, and Richardson ninth in 4:05.00.
But Richardson’s time was good enough for her to lead overall on 77.943 points, Sablikova was second by .47 with Wust third on 78.786.