China adds two more golds at short track speed skating worlds

ROTTERDAM, March 17 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese short-track speed skating team concluded the World Championships at the Ahoy Arena on Sunday with a flourish, capturing gold in the mixed team relay and defending their title in the men's 5,000m relay.

Building on its success from Saturday's men's 500m and 1,500m events, China secured two additional golds on the final day, leading the tournament in total titles won.

The mixed team relay saw Fan Kexin, Gong Li, Lin Xiaojun, and Liu Shaoang clocking a winning time of 2:37.697, taking advantage of an unexpected slip by the early leader, the Netherlands.

Just less than an hour later, Lin and Liu Shaoang came to the rink again, along with Liu's elder brother Liu Shaolin and yesterday's 1,500m winner Sun, to sweep the last gold of the tournament in men's 5,000m relay with a time of 7:18.468.

"From the beginning, we had very good preparation for the two relays and we came for the golds," said China coach Zhang Jing.

Italy and the United States took the silver and bronze medals in the mixed relay, respectively, with times of 2:37.747 and 2:39.369. For the men's relay, South Korea finished in 7:18.641 to win the silver, and Poland grabbed the bronze in 7:19.103.

"When everyone performs their best, the team becomes stronger. We will make sure to seize every opportunity firmly and not let it pass, regardless of the circumstances, we can cope with," said Fan Kexin, a 30-year-old veteran who returned to the national team in early 2023.

China had already reached a milestone at this year's Worlds as Sun's victory in the men's 1,500m final on Saturday marked the 100th gold won by the team in the tournament's history.

The nation's journey started in 1989 when Guo Hongru won the women's 3,000m to claim China's first gold medal in the world championships in Solihull, UK.

"We are a national team with good tradition, and we know the responsibility and we're eager to improve the team to a higher level, to make greater success," said coach Zhang.

Lin emerged as the biggest star, finishing with three gold medals, including a men's 500m title. The 27-year-old became the only active skater to win all the individual events from 500m to 3,000m (not included in current worlds) and all the relay events in the tournament.

"Lin is a brilliant skater, he can not only skate very well, but control the pace of the whole race. Such kind of ability is quite rare, " Zhang said of Lin.

"I am very happy with our team at the tournament, I feel that we have achieved what we aimed for. I believe in our athletes, and there may be some noises in and out of the race, it happens also in international competitions, but I trust my athletes and I know they are capable of doing that," Zhang concluded.