Dordrecht Day 2: Schulting pleases the crowd with a gold - Cedrik Blais gets on the podium for Canada

Today was the second day of the short track world cup event held in Dordrecht and Suzanne Schulting offered a gold medal to her home crowd.

By Gabriel Volet

Photos by Oscar van den Bosch and Martin Holtom

The distances offering the chance of medals today were the 1500m ladies, the 1500m men, 1000m (1) ladies, 1000m (1) men and the mixed relay.

The ladies 1500m final offered quite a show. After having kept the lead for quite a few laps, Korean skater Kim Ji Yoo got passed by Suzanne Schulting in the last straight line. Another medal for Suzanne Schulting on this distance but this time with the added pleasure of winning it at home. Kim Ji Yoo finished second and Noh Ah Rum third. 

The action continued with the men's 1500m final. The race was very close and the referees needed the photo finish to determine the winner. It's finally Park Ji Won who won the gold medal. Another first place for him after the three gold medals - two individuals and one with his team - he gathered last week in Germany. Lee June Seo finished second and China's Ren Ziwei managed to prevent Korea from sweeping the podium by finishing third. 

In the main final of the first 1000m of the weekend, Korea's Lee Yu Bin finished first, Zhang Chutong ended the race in second place while 500m specialist Natalia Maliszweska from Poland got the third. 

The last individual distance of the day was the 1000m (1) men's final. The race was ponctuated with crashes and a penalty was given to Korean skater Park In Wook. Park's teammate Kim Dagyeom won the distance. It was his first individual gold medal in a world cup event. Canada's Cédrik Blais finished in second place while Itzhak de Laat got the third place. 

The day ended with the mixed relay event. It was won by the Chinese team and once again the crowd witnessed an exciting race with a tight finish. The Korean team won the silver medal crossing the line a thousandth of a second ahead of Japan.

The competition ends tomorrow with the second event on 1000m, the 500m and the relays.

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