Koen Verweij missed out on the gold medal in the men’s 1,500m speed skating at the Winter Olympics in Sochi by 3,000th of a second.

Poland’s Zbigniew Brodka eased the Dutchman out of gold medal position and Denny Morrison of Canada took bronze. Defending Dutch champion Mark Tuitert was fifth.

Verweij’s silver brings the Dutch medal haul to four gold, four silver and five bronze.

The skater from Noord-Holland told Nos television he was very disappointed at missing the gold medal. ‘I did my best to laugh on the podium but it was very difficult,’ he said. ‘I hope I will soon be happy with silver and it won’t bug me for four years.’