Chinese Reap Two Golds at Skating World Cup

Chinese skaters reaped both golds in the men's and women's 500 meters event on the second day of the season-opening World Cup short track speed skating race in Changchun on Saturday.

Six-time world champion Yang Yang (A) came from behind to beat Bulgarian world record-holder Evgenia Radanova for the victory before reigning world champion Li Jiajun was awarded the men's gold ahead of Japanese Olympic champion Takafumi Nishitani following South Korean Kim Dong-Sung's disqualification.

Yang, who won the 1,000m, 1,500m and 3,000m but finished second to teammate Wang Chunlu in the 500m at the world championships in Chonju, South Korea in March-April, battled her way past Radanova with two laps remaining in the 4.5-lap race to pick up her first victory of the 2001-2002 season in 44.615 seconds.

Crossing the line 0.1 seconds later, the Bulgarian took home a silver medal, followed by Yang's namesake teammate Yang Yang (S) at 44.729.

In the men's final, Takafumi stormed to the front at the gun and led the first three laps of the race before Li sprinted past the Japanese veteran with one lap left.

With only half lap to go, Kim, who won the 1,500m final on Friday, surpassed Li and crossed the finish line first. However, the 1,000m Olympic champion was charged with interference and disqualified afterwards.

Li, the 26-year-old Changchun native, took the title with 42. 495 as the silver medal going to Takafumi at 42.776.

Italian Maurizio Carnino, the only noe-Asian finalist, clocked 42.776 for the third place.

Skaters from the United States and Canada, among whom are five- time world champion Marc Gagnon of Canada and American world cup champion Apolo Anton Ohno, withdrew from the tournament following the terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11.

The three-day tournament, which is the first leg of the International Skating Union (ISU) Short Track Speed Skating World Cup, goes into the final day on Sunday with eight gold medals on offer.






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