China Wins First Gold at Winter Universiade

Home>>Sports

Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, January 24, 2003

China Wins First Gold at Winter Universiade

China gained its first gold medal of the 21st World Universiade on Thursday when Cheng Xiaolei won the women's 1,500-meter in the short-track speedskating event.

DISCUSSION

CHINESE

SEND TO FRIEND

China Wins First Gold at Winter Universiade

China gained its first gold medal of the 21st World Universiade on Thursday when Cheng Xiaolei won the women's 1,500-meter in the short-track speedskating event.

While South Korea and Japan took their third gold respectively on day 8 of these games, sharing the third places in the medals standings following Russia with eight and Ukraine with four.

The 22-year-old Cheng edged strong opponents from South Korea and the host Italy for the win. Her teammate Zhu Mile took the silver, followed by Marta Capurso of Italy.

"I am satisfied with my performance and very happy for winning the gold for my country," said Cheng Xiaolei, 22, who was fourth in the 500m race two years ago in Poland.

"At the beginning I felt a somewhat nervous, but after the semifinal where I defeated two South Koreans to enter the final, Iwas very confident to the medal," Cheng added.

The South Korean Song Kyung-Taek won the men's 1,500m short-track, beating Marc-Andre Monette of Canada into second. Lee Jae-Kyung of South Korea won the bronze.

China's Ma Yunfeng disappointed for Nicola Franceschina of Italy, who arrived second but was disqualified, pushing him on thestraight stretch of the course.

The Italians started well, passing all the rivals of their heats. In the semi-final the situation changed and got worse. The only Italian who qualified to the final was Franceschina.

The final was very fascinating and underlined the rapidity of the Asian athletes, favorites in the Friday's 500m.

Japan won one more gold in the Nordic Combined as Norihito Kobayashi led the Japanese 1-2 victory in the individual event. Junpei Aoki was second with Tomas Slavik of Czech Republic finishing third.

Japan won the Nordic combined team competition Tuesday.

Anastasij Popkova of Russia won her country's eighth gold in the women's giant slalom in two minutes 39.15 seconds. Beatrice Boglio of Italy was satisfied with the silver at eight seconds of delay. The bronze medal went to Jelena Lolovic of Yugoslavia, who won the country's first medal of these games, with a 13 seconds behind the winner.

Italians won their country's second gold medal Thursday after they captured the women 3x5km relay.

The Italian skiers Antonella Confortola, Maga Genoin and Stephanie Sante stood on the podium with a total time of 42:38.5.

Alessandra Merlin booked the first gold medal for the host Italy in Super Giant on Monday.

Finland took the silver with Kazakhstan third.

Questions?Comments? Click here

Beijing to Cancel 'Hotels for Hosting Foreign Visitors' ( 4 Messages)

Chinese Bid Farewell to Outworn Doctrine of Egalitarianism ( 10 Messages)

Can US Strategic Intention be Realized? ( 23 Messages)

How's US$52.7bn Foreign Investment Introduced Into China? ( 14 Messages)

Bush Rejects China Mechanical Device Import Quota ( 12 Messages)

Foreign Museums Refuse to Return Cultural relics, Chinese Experts in Action ( 11 Messages)