Sander Eitrem breaks dream limit, first skater under six minutes in 5,000m speed skating

The sensational world record was set in the German skating metropolis. Eitrem was almost two seconds faster than Frenchman Timothy Loubineaud, who clocked 6:00.23 in Salt Lake City in November.

There and then, Loubineaud erased Nils van der Poel's former world record of 6:01.56 from 2021.

Sander Eitrem cheered wildly and cried tears of joy when he realized that he had become the first skater to cross the six-minute barrier in 5,000 meters.

"I still don't understand," he said on the television broadcast, NTB reports.

Eitrem beat Loubineaud by over five seconds, and the Norwegian can be seen as a big Olympic favorite at the distance in February.