Part-time fireman Zbigniew Brodka demanded an end to the arduous journeys he and other Poles make across Europe looking for speed skating facilities to train on after winning his country's first Olympic gold in the sport.

The 29-year-old won the men's 1,500m by three thousandths of a second on Saturday to relegate Koen Verweij of the Netherlands into the silver medal position and end the Dutch men's impressive run of three straight gold medals in Sochi.

While the Dutch skaters can enjoy multiple state-of-the-art facilities at home with good salaries that come from being household names, Brodka painted a very different picture of his journey to the Winter Olympics.

"We don't have any indoor rink in Poland and we spend most of the time traveling across Europe looking for an indoor rink to train on," the 29-year-old said.

"I believe the moment to build an indoor rink is now. We don't need to travel all over Europe. If it doesn't happen then the determination to succeed among Polish skaters might be less."

Brodka said he had been inspired to traipse across the continent to train by the success of the Polish women's pursuit team, which won bronze at the 2010 Games.

He skated in heat 17 alongside double Olympic champion Shani Davis but surprised many as he left the American trailing in his wake with a "dream" showing to move to the top of the leaderboard at the Adler Arena.

He then looked on as the next four skaters fell short of the mark, before Verweij left him sweating, after crossing the line in the same time in the final heat.

Rink officials then spent anxious seconds analyzing the times before awarding the Pole victory.

"It seemed like they were unbeatable but I did it and I am very happy," the former short track skater said of the Dutch.

"I skated the perfect race which I had dreamt about. I could not believe I did it. I could believe in silver, but not in gold."

(China Daily 02/17/2014 page24)