South Korean athletes won five gold medals yesterday at the Asian Winter Games to rival hosts Kazakhstan, who also increased their gold collection by winning three events.
Kazakhstan have grabbed 13 gold medals and 37 overall, while South Korea have 10 gold and 23 overall. China are in third place, winning eight gold medals so far.
Nordic skier Lee Chae-won of South Korea opened the day’s account for South Korea finishing first in the women’s 10 km freestyle event.
The 29-year-old clocked a time of 36 minutes 34.6 seconds to finish 41 seconds ahead of Japan’s Masako Ishida and Yuki Kobayashi, who were second and third respectively crossing the finish line with a winning margin of just 0.1 seconds.
Park Seung-hi added gold to her team’s collection by winning the women’s short track 1000m race finishing just 0.3 seconds ahead of her second-placed compatriot Cho Ha-ri. Lui Quihong of China was third.
Noh Seon-yeong and Lee Seung-hoon also supplied gold medals to South Korea’s haul, winning the women’s and men’s mass start competitions in speed skating.
China’s Song Weilong, meanwhile, won the men’s 1000m short track event. Silver medalist Daisuke Uemura finished 30 seconds back, while third-placed Sung Si-bak of South Korea was more than a minute off the pace.
China also won the women’s short track 3000m relay, while South Korea finished first in the men’s 5000m relay event.
In the men’s 15km freestyle distance Japan’s Keishin Yoshida and Nobu Naruse dominated the event setting up a one-two finish for their country. Nikolay Chebotko of Kazakhstan was third almost two minutes behind the winner.
Japan’s ski jumpers were in a class of their own in winning the team K125 contest with a total of 837.6 points, 43.6 points ahead of the second-placed team Kazakhstan.
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