South Korea celebrated the second leg of a speedskating double on Tuesday as China’s top figure skaters, fresh from an historic pairs gold medal, turned their thoughts to family matters.
Lee Sang-hwa took gold for South Korea in the women’s 500m speedskating, relegating hot favorite Jenny Wolf of Germany into second spot. Lee notched a combined time of 76.09 seconds for her two races, just 0.05 seconds ahead of Wolf, while China’s Wang Beixing took bronze in 76.63 seconds.
The win for the 20-year-old Lee came after South Korea claimed their first ever Winter Olympic gold outside short-track on Monday through Mo Tae-bum in the men’s 500m.
PHOTO: AFP
“I cannot believe I have won the medal. I am very emotional and I feel like I am going to cry,” Lee said.
For China, love was in the air.
Husband-and-wife team Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo, who came out of retirement to give China their first Olympic figure skating title, said they were thinking of starting a family.
Meanwhile, silver medalists Tong Jian and Pang Qing also admitted they are in love.
Tong kissed the ice after the couple earned a standing ovation for their spectacular free skate, but he said he would rather have been locking lips with his partner.
“Actually, I wanted to kiss Pang after the free skating competition, but I didn’t find her by my side. Now, I want to announce that we are in a relationship with each other,” said Tong in comments carried by the China Daily.
China’s women’s ice hockey team, who had lost 12-1 to the US in their opener, squandered a 1-0 lead to lose 2-1 to Finland.
Wang Linuo put China ahead, but Finland struck back in the second period when Karoliina Rantamaki’s shot was deflected off Jin Fengling and past goalkeeper Shi Yao.
Finland grabbed the winner when Venla Hovi slipped in a backhand shot.
“I think the referee was very unfair to us,” a tearful Jin said. “Some penalties shouldn’t have been called. I don’t think we deserved to lose.”
The game grew increasingly rough, with the two teams racking up 30 minutes in penalties between them during the game, China accounting for 20 of them.
Japan were well-placed in the men’s figure skating after the completion of the short program.
Defending champion Yevgeny Plushenko led world champion Evan Lysacek of the US, but Daisuke Takahashi, the 2007 world silver medalist, was third, just ahead of Nobunari Oda, the winner of two Grand Prix events this season.
“It was my best performance of the season,” said Takahashi, who scored 90.25 points after Plushenko topped the leaderboard with 90.85.
TITLE CAMPAIGN: The victory sent the Monkeys to the Taiwan Series for the third time in the past four seasons as they seek their first championship since 2019 The stage is set for the Taiwan Series after the Rakuten Monkeys on Monday beat the Uni-President Lions 4-3 in Game 5 of the CPBL Challenger Series in Kaohsiung. The Monkeys, who entered the top of the ninth scoreless, tied the game with a three-run blast by Lin Chih-ping and scored the winning run in the 10th on an RBI single by Lin Li, a three-time batting champion in the CPBL. Both players entered the game as pinch hitters. “The coach told me to stay prepared as a pinch hitter in the later part of the game. My teammates had
Taiwanese badminton ace Chou Tien-chen was crowned the men’s singles champion at the Arctic Open on Sunday, after defeating Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand 21-11, 13-21, 21-19. The 35-year-old Chou, who is ranked world No. 5, and the 24-year-old Vitidsarn, ranked world No. 3, battled it out for one hour and 17 minutes in a grueling three-game match at Energia Areena in Vantaa, Finland. In the first game, Chou took an early 9-7 lead and maintained his momentum, widening the gap, before defeating Vitidsarn 21-11. At the start of the second game, the two players were neck-and-neck. When Vitidsarn pulled ahead
The Ministry of Sports on Wednesday night called for the Chinese Taipei Football Association (CTFA) to address issues in Taiwanese soccer after national manager Huang Che-ming on Tuesday resigned following Taiwan’s elimination in AFC Asian Cup qualifiers. Taiwan on Tuesday were thrashed 6-1 by Thailand in their Group D tie at Taipei Municipal Stadium. Taiwan finished with no points, after losing all four of their matches, eliminating them from qualifying for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup. Huang made his surprise resignation at a post-match news conference, following three losses since he took over the team from English coach Gary White in August. Huang
HIT AND RUN: Toronto manager John Schneider got his wish that his team ‘find some slug in the air out here,’ as the Blue Jays combined to total 611m of homers Tired in Toronto, the Blue Jays slugged in Seattle. Vladimir Guerrero Jr and George Springer on Wednesday woke up the Jays, as Toronto hit five home runs to rebound from an early deficit, routing the Mariners 13-4 and closing to 2-1 in the American League Championship Series (ALCS). Toronto had 18 hits — all within the first three pitches of each at-bat. “If they give us a first pitch, the pitch that we’re looking for, we’re going to attack and we’re going to be aggressive,” Guerrero said. Seattle starter George Kirby gave up eight of the hits. “I wasn’t really executing when they got
RSS