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02/17 08:22 CST Canada vs. Netherlands, and US vs. Italy in the speedskating team pursuit Olympic finals Canada vs. Netherlands, and US vs. Italy in the speedskating team pursuit Olympic finals By HOWARD FENDRICH AP National Writer MILAN (AP) --- The U.S. trio of Casey Dawson, Emery Lehman and Ethan Cepuran easily reached the men's team pursuit final in speedskating at the Milan Cortina Olympics on Tuesday by defeating China in the semifinals, while the women's title was going to go to either 2022 gold medalist Canada or Netherlands. The U.S. women were to take on Japan for the bronze later Tuesday. The American men, who set the world record in the event in November and took home a bronze from the 2022 Beijing Games, were set to face Italy for the gold on Tuesday. That's a rematch of a quarterfinal won by the Italians on Sunday. The teams with the four fastest quarterfinal times moved on to the semifinals. The two semifinal head-to-head winners reached the final. The United States trio built up a big lead against China's men and eased up down the stretch, finishing in 3 minutes, 44.29 seconds, enough to win by nearly 8 seconds. Italy's Davide Ghiotto, Andrea Giovannini and Michele Malfatti beat Netherlands in the first men's semifinal, clocking 3:38.88, more than 1 1/2 seconds faster than the Dutch. Italy's only men's medal in team pursuit was the gold at the 2006 Turin Games. China will race Netherlands for the men's bronze. Two-time defending champion Norway was eliminated in the quarterfinals. In the women's semifinals, Canada's group of 3,000-meter individual bronze medalist Valerie Maltais, Ivanie Blondin and Isabelle Weidemann --- the same athletes who won this event four years ago --- finished in 2:55.92. That was 4.22 seconds faster than the U.S. trio of Brittany Bowe, Mia Manganello and Giorgia Birkeland. Bowe and Manganello were part of the American squad that got a bronze in women's team pursuit at the 2018 Olympics. The Dutch team of Joy Beune, Marijke Groenewoud and Antoinette Rijpma-de Jong barely got past Japan in the semifinals, clocking 2:55.84 to win by 0.11 seconds. In team pursuit, which was added to the Olympics in 2006, three skaters from each country participate together, and two teams race against the clock in each heat, starting at opposite sides of the track. The women do six laps for a total of 2,400 meters; the men race eight laps covering 3,200 meters. ___ AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

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