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.
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