The Dutch skating team will be hoping to win their first medals at the Winter Olympics in Milan after a disappointing opening two days.

Jutta Leerdam will hope to win her first Olympic gold over 1,000m, the distance at which she has twice been world champion, but she will face strong competition from team-mate Femke Kok and defending champion Miho Takagi.

Leerdam will go head-to-head against Takagi in the 15th and final pairing, while Kok will skate off against another Japanese contender, Rio Yamada, two pairs earlier. The third Dutch team member, triple short track gold medallist Suzanne Schulting, will go in the first pair against Italian Maybritt Vigl.

Dutch champion Merel Conijn was among the favourites for the women’s 3000m on Saturday, but could only finish ninth, while Joy Beune just missed out on a medal in fourth and Marieke Groenewoud was eighth.

The race was won by the Italian Francesca Lollobrigida, silver medallist in Beijing behind the Netherlands’ Irene Schouten.

The 35-year-old was roared on by a partisan home crowd and took Schouten’s Olympic record into the bargain with a time of 3:54.28.

In the men’s 5000m on Sunday the Dutch missed a place on the podium for the first time since Sarajevo in 1984.

Chris Huizinga could only manage seventh place in a time of 6:11.58, more than seven seconds behind the Norwegian winner Sander Eitrem.

Huizinga was in contention for a medal until two laps from the end, but crossed the line more than two seconds slower than the Italian Riccardo Lorello, who finished third. Stijn van de Bunt finished two places behind Huizinga while Marcel Bosker was 11th.