Yang Yang Claims Gold at Speedskating World Cup

Home favorite Yang Yang (A) snatched the gold in the women's 1500 meters event with a time of two minutes 48.054 seconds at the short-track speedskating World Cup series Chinese leg competition in Changchun on Friday.

World record holder Evgenia Radanova of Bulgaria had to settle for the silver in 2:48.256 while the bronze medal went to South Korean Min-Kyung Choi, whose time was 22:48.290.

"I'm not in top form," 23-year-old Yang Yang said after the competition. "But with the help of my coach I somewhat managed to win."

In the men's 1500m event, Apolo Anton Ohno from the United States beat off strong a Chinese challenge in the shape of Feng Kai to claim the title. Ohno won the photo-finish race in 2:31.

105, against Feng's 2:31.191.

Apolo's compatriot Rusty Smith came third with a time of 2:31.875.

South Korea's Olympic champion Dong-Sung Kim, a pre-event odds-on favorite, was disqualified in the semi-finals because of impedeing while China's hopeful Li Jiajun crashed out in the

preliminaries.

There were 75 short-track skaters from 11 countries and regions taking part in the tournament, which run through Sunday.


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