It's going to take something special to deny Thomas Krol gold from here.

Here comes fellow Dutchman and defending champion Kjeld Nuis. What has he got?

Sonia Oxley
BBC Sport in Beijing

Wow, Thomas Krol has absolutely stormed that! An Olympic record for the Dutchman - one minute 43.55!

Almost two seconds faster than anyone else so far today.

That is absolutely rapid from Thomas Krol.

An Olympic record time!

Blimey. It's one minute 43.55 seconds for the world champion.

Norway's Peder Kongshaug also puts in a great performance, finishing 0.84 seconds later to place second.

Wilf O’Reilly
Former British short track speed skater on BBC TV

They certainly weren't hanging around at all - Sergei Trofimov had a very good first lap, drafting the American and maximising that speed.

He will be very pleased with that time indeed.

But this next pairing could certainly be a gold medal contention race...

World champion Thomas Krol of the Netherlands steps onto the ice.

Is this going to be a gold medal-winning performance?

Sergei Trofimov can!

The Russian crosses the line in one minute 45.32 seconds to move into first place.

What a start to the second half of this compeition.

Sonia Oxley
BBC Sport in Beijing

After some resurfacing, lights and music, we're back for the second half of the pairings.

And we've been told by the man on the tannoy to expect some fast times. Everyone in the next six pairings has gone under one minute 42 this season over the distance.

The fastest so far this evening is 1.45.42 so expect some big changes on the leaderboard.

American Emery Lehman and Russian Olympic Committee athlete Sergei Trofimov are just getting the men's 1500m speed skating back up and running.

Can either remove Marcel Bosker from the top of the standings?

Image source, Getty Images

No doubt about who the surprise package of the mixed doubles curling has been so far.

Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner of Italy came into the tournament ranked 13 in the world. They have punched a lot higher than than though, racing through the round-robin stage with a perfect 9-0.

They then swatted aside the Swedish pair of Almida De Val and Oskar Eriksson 8-1 in the semis to ensure they would become the first Italians to win a curling medal in Olympic history.

Which colour will it be though? Norway's world silver medallists Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten will be hoping it's silver for the Italians as they look to go all the way on the back of beating the world champion Scottish pair - Bruce Mouat and Jen Dodds - in the last four.

Katie Falkingham
BBC Sport in Zhangjiakou

Sweden's Jonna Sundling again set the fastest time in the women's sprint quarter-finals, winning her heat by more than two seconds.

She's the reigning world champion in both the individual and team sprint, and looks on course to add Olympic gold to that collection.

Fun fact - she wants to be a nurse after her skiing career, following in the footsteps of both her mother and grandmother.

A stunning display of skiing helped Quentin Fillon Maillet of France to recover from two misses on the shooting range as he won the men's individual 20km biathlon.

"Maybe it looked easy but it was so hard today," he said. "With two misses in the shooting I never expected the victory - maybe the podium. It was amazing."

Nana Fujimoto is the hero for Japan! She saves all five Czech Republic penalties.

Hanae Kubo is the only shooter to convert for Japan - though the puck only just crawls over the line - and is enough to secure the victory.

It means Japan qualify as Group B winners and will play ROC in the quarter-finals.

The Czech Republic stay second and face the daunting task of taking on the USA next.

Image source, Getty Images

Not a bad Olympic debut at all for Cornelius Kersten.

The first male British speed skater to feature at the Olympics in 30 years, posting a time just 1.69 seconds slower than the current leader after 15 skaters.

Image source, Reuters

Canadian Tyson Langelaar looked like he was going to put down a really fast time there, but the pace caught up with him and he can only place eighth.

We'll have a break now as the track is tidied up, with Marcel Bosker in top spot and GB's Cornelius Kersten in fifth.

Image source, Getty Images

Sonia Oxley
BBC Sport in Beijing

Give this man a medal right now...

American Casey Dawson only got to Beijing a few hours ago after a series of covid-testing issues and here he is lining up for the 1500m.

An Olympic debut, but not how he probably ever imagined it. Has he had any sleep at all in the past 36 hours?!

At one point American media were reporting his baggage had also gone missing, so who knows whether he even had his own skates on!

He finished six seconds off his best and is the slowest skater so far, but he has raced at Beijing 2022!

It's a Dutchman in the lead at present, but the Netherlands still have two big names to come in this event.

Reigning champion Kjeld Nuis and world champion Thomas Krol will be up in pairings 10 and 11.

Chinese skater Zhongyan Ning and the American Joey Mantia are other names to watch out for here.

Yep, that build-up certainly wasn't the most ideal preparation for American Casey Dawson who can't make an impression here.

Russian Daniil Aldoshkin is on a good day though, and claims second spot - finishing less than a second down on Marcel Bosker's lead time.

There is still no separating these two sides in overtime.

It's time for penalties!

China's Haotian Wang and Italian Alessio Trentini can't trouble the top three, and GB's Cornelius Kersten remains fourth with what is looking like a very solid time indeed.

We have our seventh pairing of 11 up next, featuring American Casey Dawson who only landed in Beijing this morning due to Covid.

Sonia Oxley
BBC Sport in Beijing

Cornelius Kersten is an Olympian!

He looks exhausted and pulls his skin suit down to cool down a bit. Fantastic effort by the Briton on his Games debut.