1ST LEAD Korean Lee and Japan's Nana Takagi speed to inaugural mass start wins By Frank Thomas, dpa

Pyeongchang, South Korea (dpa) - South Korea‘s Lee Seung Hoon gave the host nation some late Winter Games joy by winning the first ever men‘s Olympic speed skating mass start race on Saturday. Japan‘s Nana Takagi won the inaugural women‘s event following a cat-and-mouse race before a furious sprint finish. The mass starts, where 16 skaters race together rather than in pairs over 16 laps on the long track, were the first new Olympic speed skating events since the team pursuits were added in 2006. Lee‘s gold was greeted with wild delight by home fans inside the Gangneung Oval. He was the hot favourite having claimed the world title in the event in 2016 and having won a men‘s record eight World Cup races. Lee won the 10,000 metres at the 2010 Games and becomes the second South Korean long track speed skater to win multiple Olympic titles, after Lee Sang Hwa, who won two golds in the women‘s 500m. Short track is usually the discipline of choice for South Koreans.He draped himself in the South Korea flag after winning and looked emotionally and physically exhausted."As the first mass start (at the Olympics) I feel very happy to do this in front of my home crowd and I am honoured to get so much praise with this medal," Lee said. "It is like a dream to get gold and I can‘t put it into words." Belgium‘s Bart Swings took silver with Koen Verweij of the Netherlands finishing third.In the women‘s race, Takagi followed up her silver in the 2017 world championship mass start to claim a second Pyeongchang gold, having also helped Japan to team pursuit glory. "I am feeling very good. I only lost focus on two laps then I showed good acceleration," Takagi said. "I focused on the team pursuit and mass start and got the gold medals."There was a further medal for South Korea with Kim Bo Reum second while Dutch skater Irene Schouten took bronze. Germany‘s 46-year-old Claudia Pechstein, hoping to be the oldest woman to win gold at a Winter Olympics and become the second athlete in any winter sport to claim at least one medal at six different Games, could finish only 13th."I wanted to get to the final and that is what I managed. I am proud to have been here at 46 competing in my seventh Olympics," said Pechstein, who served a two-year doping ban between 2009 and 2011. The Netherlands won the first five long track speed skating golds at Pyeongchang but could not keep up the pace and ended up with seven golds from 14 available. That still left them top of the speed skating medal table at the end of Olympic action.