Dutch speed skater Marianne Timmer pulled off an upset Sunday at the Turin Winter Olympics as she defeated a pack of favorites to snatch the women's 1,000m speed skating title.

Timmer, who was disqualified in the 500m event on a controversial false start, was highly motivated in the 1,000m final and clocked one minute 16.05 seconds to win gold.

Canada's Cindy Klassen grabbed the silver 0.04 seconds behind, with heavily favored German Anni Friesinger in third place, a further 0.02 seconds adrift.

Timmer, a double 1998 Olympic champion in the 1,000 and 1,500 at the Nagano Games, said she didn't expect herself to win the gold medal.

"After the 500m race I had a bad feeling about the whole Olympics. Today everything was Okay," said the 31-year-old Dutchwoman.

"I was hoping on a medal and now I have the gold medal. I still can't believe it but it is on the scoreboard. It's wonderful."

Friesinger, the current leader in the World Cup standings, started in the last race, which had been believed to produce the winner, but failed to beat Timmer's result.

After the medals were decided, a large Dutch crowd in the stands broke into deafening cheers.

"I thought when I saw Anni Friesinger 'that's the golden race', but it wasn't," said Timmer, who briefly married to her former coach and former Olympic champion Peter Mueller.

"I can hardly believe that my 1:16.05 is the winning time. I thought that 1:15.00 would be the time for gold," she added.

China's Wang Manli, the silver medalist of the 500m event on Tuesday, placed a distant 20th in 1:17.90. Her compatriot Wang Beixing was 29th, while Ren Hui veered off the lane halfway the race and did not finish.

Ren, who captured a shock bronze medal for China in the 500m, said she hadn't expected that such an "accident" would happen to her.

"I lost my pace in a haste, so I fell off the ice. It's a pity, " said the 22-year-old girl from northeast China's Heilongjiang province.

"I am too young and still need to improve my techniques in future."

US defending champion Chris Witty, who holds the world record over the distance, was in 27th place.

Source: Xinhua