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HARBIN, China, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Skaters from the Netherlands took three out of the five gold medals on offer on Saturday at the Harbin leg of the 2016-17 ISU Speed Skating World Cup Series.
In the men's 1,000m, Kjeld Nuis of the Netherlands timed in one minute 09.57 seconds, beating Finland's Mika Poutala to second and Russian Pavei Kulizhnikov to third.
Besides, the Dutch skaters took both men's and women's team pursuit titles, winning the men's race in 3:45.33 and the women's event in 3:04.01.
American Heather Bergsma won the women's 1,000m race in 1:15.94, beating Marrit Leenstra of the Netherlands and Japan's Nao Kodaira to second and third.
The men's 500m title went to Roman Krech of Kazakhstan in 35.07 seconds, Russian Kulizhnikov placed second and Kai Verbij of the Netherlands ranked third.
The Chinese skaters had a poor showing on Saturday when Zhang Hong registered the best 12th placing among three local entries in the women's 1,000m, and the hosts finished last in both men's and women's team pursuit races.
The World Cup Series kicked off here on Friday, with the participation of 240 skaters from 28 countries and regions.
After Harbin, the six-leg World Cup series will travel to Nagano of Japan, Astana of Kazakhstan and Heerenveen of the Netherlands in 2016.
In January, Berlin of Germany will host the fifth leg and the World Cup final will be held in Chelyabinsk of Russia in March, 2017.
