베이징 2022: 황대헌, 이준서, 박장혁 모두 쇼트트랙 1,500m 결승 진출
Medal contention in Beijing 2022 has so far been mainly about Europe and China.
South Korea currently ranks twenty first but there’s a strong chance the country may win its first gold medal of these Games tonight.
We have our Olympic correspondent Han Seong-woo on the line with the details.
Seong-woo, I’m aware the final of the men’s 1,500 meter event in short track speed skating is taking place in just a few minutes?
That is correct, Daniel.
And all three of South Korea’s contenders, Hwang Dae-heon, Lee June-seo and Park Jang-hyuk have all made it to the finals… where they’ll be hunting for the country’s first gold medal.
As for the women’s team, Choi Min-jeong and Lee Yu-bin have made it to the quarterfinals of the 1,000 meter… slated for Thursday night.
Choi even set an Olympic record… crossing the finish line in first place in her qualifier at just over a minute and 28 seconds… although it was broken in the very next heat by the Netherlands’ Suzanne Schulting.
Their stellar performances follow recent disqualification controversies on the men’s squad that saw Hwang and Lee make shocking early exits.
A few hours ago, the Korean Sport and Olympic Committee held a virtual meeting with the head of the International Skating Union’s Jan Dijkema to officially question Monday night’s controversial refereeing decisions…. but to no avail… as the ISU maintained its original stance that a disqualification following a rule violation cannot be challenged.
Unfortunate. Moving onto tomorrow, though, any events worth watching?
Absolutely.
The world’s attention will be on whether figure skater Nathan Chen of the USA can pull off a free skate program as good as his world record-setting short program on Tuesday… to take home a long-awaited men’s singles gold medal.
Competing for a top ten finish in the same event will be South Korea’s very own Cha Jun-hwan who performed much better than expected yesterday to place fourth in the short with a personal best of 99-point-51… the highest a Korean man has ever gone.
The 2022 Four Continents champion’s final record will depend on whether he can flawlessly execute the two quadruple jumps he has planned.
The men’s skeleton heats begin tomorrow at ten thirty AM as well.
PyeongChang 2018 gold medalist Yun Sung-bin faces tougher competition this time, though because he’ll be competing against up-and-coming fellow countryman Jung Seung-gi, who currently outranks him.
Jung even claimed his first World Cup medal recently, winning bronze in this season’s sixth competition in Latvia.
Also keep an eye out for Korean-American snowboarder Chloe Kim, who’ll be looking to defend her Olympic crown as the queen of the halfpipe.
The first of her three final runs will take place at around eleven thirty in the morning.
That’s all I have for now, Daniel, but I’ll be back with more tomorrow.
#Olympic #short_track #SouthKorea
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2022-02-09, 22:00 (KST)
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