On Saturday, Hanne Desmet (BEL) held the lead in the 1500m final before falling on the penultimate lap and missing out on the podium.
On Sunday, however, the 27-year-old did everything right as she defended her 1000m title by a comfortable margin to finish the ISU European Short Track Championships 2024 in Gdansk, Poland, on a high.
"It's awesome. I hadn't got a gold this year so I really wanted to win that 1000m and show that I could do it and I did," Desmet said.
"In short track it's really important to bounce back from a little disappointment. I kept calm, knew my strengths and did a good race."
After staying in second place for most of the first half of the race, Desmet took the lead with four laps to go, establishing a gap to the rest of the field that none of her rivals could close. After a last push, Desmet crossed the finish line more than 0.6 seconds ahead of silver medallist Selma Poutsma (NED), World Champion Xandra Velzeboer (NED) having to settle for bronze.
After the disappointment of crashing out of the 1500m on Saturday, Hanne Desmet (BEL) could celebrate 1000m gold on Sunday @ISU
"I played with the pack a bit and then I was just gone, no-one was following, so that was nice," Desmet said.
But the back-to-back European 1000m champion, who won bronze in the distance at the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing in 2022, still sees 1500m as her strongest event.
"I still feel like 1500m is physically more what I'm good at, but it's not that different, it really depends on what kind of race it is. I just need to make it a hard race and I know I'm strong," Desmet said.
Poutsma satisfied with silver
Poutsma, who won her second silver medal of the championship after being runner-up in the women's 500m on Saturday, also went on to defend her 2000m mixed relay and women's 3000m relay titles with the Netherlands.
"I'm really satisfied with these championships," the 24-year-old said.
Dutch teammates Selma Poutsma, left, and Xandra Velzeboer, right, shared the podium with Desmet. Both won four medals in Gdansk @ISU
"It's been a really good day. The body was tired but I was full of adrenaline so it helped me through the day and I really enjoyed all the races.
"I'm also really proud of our team. We went into both races as favorites, we really went for the golds, it was tough races – at these kinds of championships you're really tired at the end – but we figured out a way to get the win."
She said she had not been "physically the best" skater in the 1000m final, but skated a tactically well-timed race.
"I think it should've been Hanne [Desmet] and Xandra [Velzeboer] for the win, but in this sport a lot can happen and in this race a lot happened," she said.
"I was just in the right place at the right moment."
One key to the silver medal had been to go to the front for a couple of laps in the middle of the race and avoid getting tangled with her opponents.
"That was fortunate for me," she said.
"When something happened between the other girls I immediately took a position and took advantage of it."
Poutsma, currently fifth in the overall World Cup standings, said the weekend in Gdansk had given her confidence as she continues to fight for podium positions this season.
"The confidence comes out of the 500m as well because I once again managed to be really strong and show that I'm one of the people who can win gold or silver," she said.
"I'm really happy to be so stable this whole season and I'm really looking forward to the last half of it. I will make sure I keep this level and maybe even improve a little bit."
Velzeboer pushed to the limit
Her teammate Velzeboer, who had won the 500m gold medal on Saturday, had mixed feelings as she summarised her Sunday.
"I am very happy with the relays, we were such a strong team and did what we had to do. I'm really proud of the team. For the 1000m I'm not really happy about it, I felt like I had more to give."
Poutsma and Velzeboer defended the Netherlands' Women's Relay title alongside Yara van Kerkhof and Diede van Oorschot @ISU
The overall World Cup No.3 said she had a good position in the beginning of the race but had lost her momentum after a push from an opponent.
"I tried to stay calm, tried to come back, but then I got a push again and then it's just really hard to come back," Velzeboer said.
"How the race went, I'm happy that I managed to get a bronze in the end, but I felt like I'm so much stronger and it's really hard to come back if you get a push two times."
Relay silver caps ‘weird’ weekend for Confortola
Italy finished off a successful European championships campaign with a silver medal in the women's 3000m relay, ahead of bronze medallists France.
"The Dutch are super good and have a super strong relay so it was almost impossible to beat them," Elisa Confortola (ITA) said.
"We tried to stay with them but at the same time we tried to protect the medal because we had a big gap to the third team. We are super happy with silver because last season we got bronze."
Elisa Confortola (ITA, center), rounded off a memorable weeking by adding relay silver to her surprise gold in the 1500m @ISU
Confortola, who surprised everyone including herself with her 1500m victory on Saturday after Desmet and Velzeboer had crashed out, leaves a memorable weekend in Gdansk behind her.
"Yesterday was a super weird day," she said.
"Something like that has never happened to me before so it was super weird to have a lot of messages on Instagram and other social media, but it was a good feeling and today I was super determined and motivated.
"I'm very happy about the 1500m and about the relay, this weekend's races are the best races I've done so far and I'm super happy for the team and Pietro [Sighel, ITA] winning three gold medals.
“I'm super excited about the weekend."
Mixed fortunes for Polish pair
Poland crashed out early of the women's relay final but Kamila Stormowska and Nikola Mazur got to celebrate with the home fans as they claimed silver in the mixed 2000m relay together with Michal Niewinski and Diané Sellier.
Hosts Poland crashed out of the Women's Relay but Kamila Stormowska and Nikola Mazur made amends with silver in the Mixed @ISU
"It's so nice to have so many people cheering, to have so many familiar faces here, it was so close to a gold, it's cool," Mazur said.
"We had a pretty rough start but we maintained focus and calm so that's good. It was a really interesting fight."
For full results, entry lists and further information about the ISU European Short Track Championships 2024, please visit webpage here.
Where to watch
Viewers will be able to watch the Saturday and Sunday afternoon (local time) ISU European Short Track Championships sessions via their national broadcaster/channel.
For countries where there are no broadcasters and for the qualification and repechage races, the ISU will offer a live stream on the Skating ISU YouTube Channel. You will find the full list on the Where to watch webpage here.
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