Stijn Desmet is the short track vice world champion
The Belgian skater brought home the silver medal from the Short Track World Championships after coming second in the 1,000 metre race.
Stijn Desmet won the silver medal in the 1,000 metre event at the Short Track World Championships in the South Korean capital, Seoul. It is the only medal won by Belgium at these World Championships.
As a reminder, short track is speed skating on a short ring-shaped track with a circumference of 111.12 m.
In the 1,000 metre A final, the Belgian skater finished second in 1:27.974 behind the local racer Park Ji-won (1:27.741). Canadian Steven Dubois (1:28.069) completed the podium. His sister Hanne Desmet came sixth over the same distance.
This is the third World Cup medal for Stijn Desmet. Last year in Montreal, Canada, he took bronze in the 500 and 1,500 metre events.
Belgium, with Hanne and Stijn Desmet, Ward Pétré and Tineke den Dulk, finished fourth in the mixed relay event.
Hanne Desmet also narrowly missed out on a medal in the 1,500 metre event. She was four thousandths of a second short of third place, which went to the Canadian Kim Boutin.
Congratulations to Stijn Desmet for this silver medal on the international stage, a few days after Bart Swings brought home gold at the World Speed Skating Championships