Off the wire
• China beat Japan 9-6 in men's curling of Asian Winter Games  • Results of short track speedskating at Asian Winter Games  • Alibaba partners with Shanghai retail conglomerate Bailian Group  • Roundup: Spain's matchday 23 sees Barca crisis, Bale's return, fast hat-trick  • Sochi Olympic champ Zhang Hong takes bronze at women's 1,000m in Asiad  • Foreign exchange rates in Singapore  • Man Dandan wins China's first gold at Asian Winter Games (updated)  • Difficult day for Luis Enrique despite Barca win  • Airport to close for expansion near China's Dunhuang caves  • Vietnam to restrict imports of tobacco material, egg from Eurasian Economic Union  
You are here: 　 Home

South Korea wraps up both short track golds

Xinhua, February 20, 2017 Adjust font size:

Short track speed skating giant South Korea wrapped up both golds at Sapporo Asian Winter Games on Monday.

As always, the South Korean skaters experienced great challenge from the Chinese arch rivals, but finally they figured out a way to the highest step on the podium, both at the men's and the women's 1,500m events.

Choi Minjeong won the women's event with 2:29.146. Her teammate Shim Sukhee brought home the silver. Chinese rising star Guo Yihan finished with the bronze.

Women's 1,500 final started with three Chinese skaters, alongside with three South Korea, and also one Japanese. Teammates Choi, Shim and Kim Jiyoo started well, and three Chinese skaters Guo, Fan Kevin and Zang Yize chose to follow right behind.

With four laps left, Zang sped up and took the leading place, but the South Korean girls took back the lead right away. Both Fan and Guo tried to break up the defense of the South Korean side, but only to see Choi and Shim kept the lead till the end.

"The 1500m event is one of our strongest event, so I think that's the result we all expected," said Choi after the competition.

The South Korean male duo Park Soyeong and Lee Jungsu fought a much harder match on men's 1,500m. Park beat Chinese star Wu Dajing to claim gold. Wu bagged the silver and Lee got the third place.

Chinese male skaters Wu, Ren Ziwei and Han Tianyu did quite a good job in Heats and semifinals, while South Korea suffered from an unexpected early exit of Seo Yira.

The Chinese trio tried to take an early lead, but Park and Lee kept good pace to hold their leading place. Wu became the biggest threaten for South Korea in the final laps, but Park performed stable enough to take the gold.

"Personally I'm satisfied with my performance today," said Wu. "I got a lot of confidence through the race today and hope I can do better tomorrow."

"The men's team had a chance to win the competition but they failed, so we are going to train harder for future," said Ren Hongguo, Secretary of Team China at the Asian Winter Games. Endit