Asian Winter Games: China’s Gao sets record after South Korea skaters make dominant start
Team lives up to dominant billing, taking first three short-track golds, before Chinese speedster Gao Tingyu gets hosts off the mark
South Korea had been expected to dominate the short-track speed skating at this year’s Asian Winter Games and they got off to a strong start on Saturday, winning the first three gold medals up for grabs.
They began in the 2,000-metres mixed-team relay at Heilongjiang Ice Sports Centre, taking advantage of a China slip-up, and then added the men’s and women’s 1,500m crowns to that list.
But the Koreans did not have things all their own way, with Chinese speed skater Gao Tingyu setting a new Asian and Games record to grab gold in the men’s 100m.
His time of 9.35 seconds bettered the 9.47 posted moments earlier by Kazakhstan’s Yevgeniy Koshkin. Korea’s Kim Jun-ho took bronze in 9.62.
Earlier, Park Ji-won, the two-time World Cup overall champion, took two of South Korea’s first three golds, helping his team to the first as he crossed the line in two minutes, 41.534 seconds, after China’s Lin Xiaojun, who led by one body’s length, tumbled off the ice on the curve with two laps to go.
Kazakhstan capitalised on the Chinese team’s blip and finished second in 2:42.258. Japan took bronze in 2:44.058.