China's Ning Zhongyan set an Olympic record on his way to gold in the men's speed skating over 1,500 metres on Thursday, denying United States' Jordan Stolz a hat-trick of individual gold medals at the Milan/Cortina Winter Games.
Ning clocked 1 minute 41.98 seconds and broke into tears when Stolz failed to beat his mark in the following pairing, finishing 0.77 seconds behind.
Ning already had two bronze medals from the 1,000m event and the team pursuit.
Bronze went to world record holder Kjeld Nuis of the Netherlands, who won the event four years ago in Beijing.
Stolz was bidding for a sweep of the three shorter distances after 500m and 1,000m golds to join compatriot Eric Heiden in doing so.
Heiden won all five speed skating races, including the 5,000m and 10,000m in Lake Placid in 1980.
The women's 1,500m is on Friday, and the men's and women's mass start complete the speed skating programme at the 2025 Games on Saturday.
