The penultimate day's competition of speed skating saw Chinese women again excelled in mid distance while the Netherlands repeated reign in the men's long course at the Harbin Universiade on Wednesday.

The gold and bronze medals of the men's 10,000 meters both went to the Dutch skaters as Arjen van der Kieft clocked 13 minutes and 35.31 seconds to make it double, adding to his 5,000m trophy last Friday.

Russia's Artem Belousov, the bronze medalist five days ago, took the silver after timing 13:35.37, beating thus runner-up Renz Rotteveel of the Netherlands to the third place on 13:37.36.

The best Asian in the 10,000m final is Japan's Nobumitsu Kuroiwa on 13:49.51, followed by South Korea's Song Jin Soo with a time of 13:49.55. China did not send anyone to participate.

Earlier on the oval, the host won the 1-2 position on podium in the women's 1,000 meters final, leaving Japan's Nao Kodaira the sole foreigner in top five.

Jin Peiyu clocked one minute and 16.83 seconds for the title and the Universiade's women's 100m winner Yu Jing timed 1:16.96 to take the silver, beating the 1,500m champion Kodaira to the third place on 1:17.48.

Ren Hui, one of the pre-tournament favorites but having failed to win a medal, was the fourth with a time of 17.90, while Zhang Shuang, the silver medalist in the 100m sprint and the third-placed in the 500m, followed as the fifth at 1:18.11.

"The host's duo, who finished 1-2, were both too fast for me to catch up," said the 22-year-old Kodaira, who managed to wriggle herself among the Chinese.

"It was my last event out of the four I've put my name in the participants, and I felt really tired. I'm just happy for having finished it," added the Japanese, who beat China's Dong Feifei and Ji Jia to win the 1,500 meters last Friday.

"I've been determined for today's race," Jin told a press conference. "I tried really hard to tune myself up, as a cold has cost my chances in the previous events, and shrugged off pressure for a fluent performance."

The previous Universiade record was 1:17.33 and Jin bettered it for half a second.

"It is my best time on this oval but still away from my personal best," added Jin, whose PB is around one minute and 16.40 seconds, a time she'd claimed this season in two stops of the World Cups in Russia and Germany.

Jin's been ranked third in two previous World Cups in the event and once the runner-up of the women's 500 meters in a Russian World Cup.

Her teammate Yu Jing was convinced by her performance, saying that "Jin skated a perfect race and deserved the gold medal".

(Xinhua News Agency February 25, 2009)