After his gold medal at the Beijing Olympic Winter Games, Leuven's Bart Swings has won bronze at the World Speed Skating Championships in Hamar, Norway.
Barely recovered from his achievement in the mass start event at the Winter Olympics, Belgian Bart Swings climbed onto the third step of the podium at the end of an event combining four distances (500 m1,500 m, 5000 m and 10,000 m). He has also equalled his best result, obtained in 2013.
It was a tough struggle. In first place was the Swede Nils van der Poel, who waited until the last race to make an extraordinary comeback and gain 21.72 seconds on the Dutchman Patrick Roest, the three-time defending champion, who had to settle for second place.
After his victory in the 1,500 m race, the Belgian was ranked 4th in the provisional rankings before the last race. He then lined up for the final 10,000 m against Nils van der Poel, double Olympic champion (5,000 m and 10,000 m). Van der Poel beat him by 27.65 seconds, but with a time of 13h09'21, Bart Swings finished second in relation to his competitors.
These excellent results in the different events earned him a very honourable third place.
With gold in Beijing and bronze in Hamar, 2022 is getting off to a great start for the Belgian champion.
