Davis claims third consecutive World Cup title in Erfurt

OLYMPIC gold medallist Shani Davis has won his third consecutive 1000m World Cup title while notching up his sixth victory of the season in Erfurt.

 
WORLD CUP CHAMPION: Shani Davis picked up his sixth win of the season to take the title
in Germany (Getty Images)

In the first World Cup since the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, the American ensured the title was his with his fifth win on Saturday before completing an impressive weekend's work on Sunday taking another gold to make it six.

One week before the World Cup finale in Heerenveen, Davis showed his dominance in the event finishing in 1:09.25 minutes ahead of the Netherlands' Stefan Groothuis, who won silver and Mark Tuitert, who took bronze.

Davis has an unassailable lead sitting on a total of 500 points while Tuitert is closest to the American 280 points behind in second.

In the 500m Jan Smeekens followed up from his first World Cup win of the season yesterday to top the podium again today in 35.2 seconds with Japan's Yuya Oikawa in second and Finland's Mika Poutala taking third.

German Jenny Wolf completed a double in front of her home crowd, taking the women's 500m title again after yesterday's triumph, while Margot Boer won her second silver and Thijsje Oenema claimed bronze.

Meanwhile in the women's 1000m Russia's Yekaterina Shikhova topped the podium ahead of Laurine van Riessen and Natasja Bruintjes who came second and third respectively.