South Korea dominates short track speedskating in Sapporo
SAPPORO, Japan (AP) — South Korea won three gold medals in short track speedskating on Wednesday at the Asian Winter Games.
Seo Yi-ra won the men's 1,000 meters to kick off South Korea's gold medal run at the Makomanai Skating Rink.
Seo clocked 1 minute, 24.097 seconds for his first Asian Winter Games gold. Sin Da-woon was second in 1:24.119 and Lee Jung-su third in 1:24.169.
South Korea also won two medals — gold and silver — in the women's 1,000. Shim Suk-hee won in 1:30.376, with Choi Min-jeong taking silver in 1:30.451. Sumire Kikuchi of Japan won bronze in 1:30.544.
South Korea claimed the gold medal in the women's 3,000-meter relay ahead of China and Kazakhstan.
South Korea has been dominant in short track speedskating since it was introduced at the 1992 Albertville Olympics but managed only two gold medals at the 2014 Sochi Games.
The hosts of the 2018 Olympics are aiming to reclaim their dominance in Pyeongchang.
China broke South Korea's sweep of the podium by winning the men's 5,000-meter relay.
South Korea also won three gold medals in speedskating on Wednesday.
Olympic gold medalist Lee Seung-hoon won the men's 10,000 in 13:18.56, while Kim Bo-reum won the women's 5,000 in 7:12.58, adding to her silver in the 3,000 on Monday.
South Korean men won the team pursuit in 3:44.32.
Elsewhere, Yohei Koyama of Japan captured the men's giant slalom gold medal. Koyama led both runs on the Teine New Slalom Course, winning in 2:17.51 to finish ahead of Kim Hyeon-tae of South Korea and Hideyuki Narita of Japan.
Kim posted a combined time of 2:19.37, 1.86 behind Koyama, for the silver and Narita finished in 2:20.24 for the bronze.
