China dominates 500m events at Asian speed-skating

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, November 16, 2003

China dominates 500m events at Asian speed-skating

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China's young skaters dominated the 500m events on the first day of the 2003 Asian short-track speed-skating championships at the Hongta Sports Center Saturday in Kunming, while South Korea swept the golds of the 1,500m events.

Wang Wei clocked in 46.378 seconds in the women's 500m to give the host its first gold, followed by Park Hee-Young in 46.462 seconds.

Chen Pai notched up the second for China when he clinched the men's 500m title with a time of 42.861 seconds, beating the silvermedalist Song Kyung-taek of South Korea in 43.023, after his teammate Hu Ze unfortunately slipped down at the beginning.

South Korea defended its honor in the long distance races, of which they have been enjoying a fine tradition.

Hur Hee-been crossed the line first in the women's 1,500m at two minutes and 25.085 seconds to leave three Chinese rivals far behind, while four South Koreans comfortably faltered two hardworking Chinese opponents in the men's 1,500m final with Song Kyung-taek finishing first in 2:13.867.

"The Chinese skaters always do well in the 500m events," said South Korean team leader Chai Hwan-kook after the competition.

"They have better skills in the first few steps of the running start", added Chai.

In predicting the 2006 Winter Olympic Games, Chai made a diplomatic tone, saying that "I believe both China and South Koreawill put up good performance, and we would certainly win titles inthe long distances events, while China may do well in the short distance events."

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