She began with a false start, then at the first cross she had to slow down a little because her competitor Brianne Tutt was riding in front of her.

In the first 1.5 laps she was slower compared to the previous fastest time of the American Brittany Bowe.

Marrit Leenstra of the Netherlands, often fourth in big tournaments, was the first to challenge the time set by Wüst.

Lotte van Beek of the Netherlands, who won bronze in 2014 in this discipline, had a good start but with an overall time of 1:55.27 she finished just 0.01 behind Leenstra, eventually earning fourth place.

In the last race there were two main favourites, Miho Takagi from Japan who had won all races she started in this discipline in the current season, and American Heather Bergsma-Richardson, the world record holder who had won gold at the 2017 World Single Distances Championships at the Gangneung Oval.