The Netherlands' Suzanne Schulting is through to the women's 1,500m semi-finals and 500m quarter-finals at the ISU Short Track Speed Skating World Cup in Debrecen ©Getty Images

Dutch athlete Suzanne Schulting started her bid for a third gold medal at this year's International Skating Union Short Track Speed Skating World Cup by cruising through to the women's 1,500 metres semi-finals at the Főnix Arena in the Hungarian city of Debrecen.

The reigning 500m, 1,000m, 1,500m and overall world and European champion progressed through a closely fought heat seven with a time of 2min 25.221sec, with Italy's Arianna Fontana the fastest in the heats with 2:25.141.

Schulting then won her quarter-final by clocking 2:23.619, with South Korea's Choi Min-jeong the fastest of the 21 skaters to reach the semi-finals with 2:21.421.

World Cup leader Lee Yu-bin won the slowest quarter-final in 2:41.331.

Schulting eased through the 500m preliminaries and heats, clocking 42.899 and 42.864 respectively.

The overall leader Fontana was also among the skaters to progress with times of 43.470 and 43.575, while Canada's Kim Boutin impressed as she reached the quarter-finals in 42.857 in her preliminary and 42.650 in the heats.

In the men's 1,500m, home favourite John-Henry Krueger was the star performer as he reached the semi-finals with a 2:15.371 effort in the quarters, an improvement of more than eight seconds on his heat time.

Hungary's John-Henry Krueger was impressive in the men's 1,500m and 500m in Debrecen ©Getty Images
Hungary's John-Henry Krueger was impressive in the men's 1,500m and 500m in Debrecen ©Getty Images

Russia's World Cup leader Semen Elistratov clocked 2:16.816 to progress through the heats, a time bettered only by the 2:13.052 of Canadian Steven Dubois.

Elistratov came second to The Netherlands' Sven Roes in his quarter-final as both skaters progressed, but a penalty ended Dubois' hopes of progressing.

China's An Kai and South Korea's Kwak Yoon-gy also won both their heat and quarter-finals.

The men's 500m overall leader Denis Nikisha of Kazakhstan had to settle for second with a time of 41.132 in his quarter-final, and was only the 12th best qualifier for the quarter-finals.

Eight skaters, including home favourites Shaolin Sándor Liu and Krueger, progressed with wins in the preliminaries and heats.

Hwang Dae-heon of South Korea clocked the quickest time with 40.725 in the preliminaries.

In the men's 2,000m relay, World Cup leaders China continued their dominance as they reached the semi-finals in 2:40.621, although South Korea and China also posted times under 2:41.

Competition continues tomorrow in Debrecen as the women's 1,000m and 3,000m relay get underway, as well as the men's 1,000m and 5,000m relay.