Suzanne Schulting Wins 2018 Olympic Short-Track 1000m Gold Medal

Suzanne Schulting took a surprise gold in the short-track 1,000-metre final on Thursday at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

The Dutch skater recorded a time of one minute, 29.778 seconds to finish ahead of Canada's Kim Boutin and Arianna Fontana of Italy.

Korean duo Choi Min-jeong and Shim Suk-hee crashed out of the race at the Gangneung Ice Arena.

Here are the podium times:

Suzanne Schulting—1:29.778 (NED)

Kim Boutin—1:29.956 (CAN)

Arianna Fontana—1:30.656 (ITA)

Here is the live medal table:

Boutin was quickest in both the quarter and semi-finals, while Choi was advanced after finishing third in her semi-final with China's Qu Chunyu penalised.

Meanwhile, there was no Final B, as Kim A-lang would have been the only competitor in it, as Valerie Maltais was also penalised in her semi-final.

Boutin, starting from the inside lane and was first into the opening bend, but she was immediately overtaken by Shim and Schulting.

The Canadian briefly battled back to the front with five laps to go as she duelled with Schulting, while Fontana took up third place behind the pair.

The Dutch skater maintained her lead for the second half of the race to secure gold, while both Koreans collided with one another and crashed out on final lap as they tried to come around the outside, per BBC Sport:

Short-track analyst Tony Chung praised Schulting, while NBC's Nick Zaccardi noted the significance of the gold:

Boutin's silver also represented a successful Games for her, having bettered the bronze medals she managed in the 500-metre and 1,500-metre events.

As for Fontana, her bronze was her eighth Olympic medal, making the Italian the most decorated female short-track speedskater of all time.