Chinese Skater Nips Gold

Skater nips gold

Li Jiajun clocked 2:24.112 to take the men's 1,500m gold medal as China and South Korea split the two gold medals at stake in the first day of competition at the ISU Short Track Speed Skating World Cup at Provo, Salt Lake City, on Friday.

Li beat South Korea¡¯s Kim Dong-Sung in 2:24.133, with the bronze medal going to Canada's Marc Gagnon in 2:24.297.

The women's 1,500m title was won by South Korean Park Hye-Rim in 2:31.727, with China's Yang Yang finishing second in 2:31.745 and Bulgarian Evgenia Radanova taking the bronze medal in 2:31.852.

"It was a morale-boosting win for the Chinese men skaters in the second leg of the cup, as they failed to make any finals in the first leg in Calgary," Chinese team manager, Tong Lixin, said.

"Li Jiajun had promising performances all the way in the heats and the semi-finals leading up to the final,"Tong said. "It was really hard for him to triumph eventually as he had to make the final two from the six-member semifinals which had three former world champions competing."

"For Yang Yang, a silver medal was still worthy of celebration because she had to chase one of three South Koreans from the very beginning of the finals,¡± Tong said. ¡°We wanted to downplay the World Cup series to some extent in order to create a more favorable atmosphere for the Chinese women skaters in the World Championships as well as in the 2002 Winter Olympic Games."

Apolo Anton Ohno of the United States, was disqualified in the 1,500m semifinals.