Short Track Speed Skating: South Korea aim to tighten golden stranglehold
TOKYO (AFP) – World champion Lee Ho-Suk is determined to tighten South Korea’s stranglehold on Olympic short-track speed skating gold despite the daunting challenges from the United States and Canada.
China’s Wang Meng, who won the 500m to prevent South Korean women’s gold-medal monopoly at the 2006 Turin Games, is ready to reign supreme after taking the overall, 500m and 1,000m titles at last year’s world championships.
For South Korea, short-track skating and the Olympic Winter Games are blood brothers, although world figure skating champion Kim Yu-Na could be poised to grab the headlines in Vancouver.
In Turin, the South Korea team collected an all-time high of six gold, three silver and two bronze medals – all but one of the bronzes coming in the short track.
“My goal is to win a gold by beating Apolo Anton Ohno of the United States and Canada’s Charles Hamelin,” said Lee, the runner-up to compatriot Ahn Hyun-Soo in the men’s 1,000m and 1,500m at the last Games.
“When I get my first gold, I will then aim at another,” added the 23-year-old, famous for his dynamic outside pass.
He also teamed with Ahn in powering South Korea to the 5,000m-relay gold in Turin.
Ahn has not raced internationally since injuring his knee two years ago and failed to qualify for Vancouver, leaving South Korea’s hopes pinned on Lee.
Ohno denied South Korea’s sweep of four men’s gold medals in Turin by winning the 500m. It was his second Olympic title after he claimed the 1,500m in his media-hyped Olympic debut in 2002 in Salt Lake City.
The 27-year-old American beat Lee into second spot overall at the 2008 world championships but finished fifth last year when compatriot J.R. Celski ended second and Hamelin third behind the Korean.
Ohno, who has collected five Olympic medals and nine world titles, still managed to rank second in this season’s 1,000m World Cup. He won the third race of the four-leg series.
“I believe in my heart that if I show up and I’m physically ready and mentally ready and I feel good, there’s no way I can’t win,” he said.
Hamelin, who won the 500m world title in 2007 and 2009 and finished top in this season’s 500m World Cup, aims for his first individual Olympic medal.
Celski, 19, who grew up watching Ohno skate for glory on television, missed the World Cup after his skate blade deeply sliced his left leg at the national championships in September.
But he has recovered for his first Olympic challenge.
Wang beat South Korean Kim Min-Jung into second overall spot with teammate Zhou Yang third last year to win the back-to-back world titles.
The 24-year-old Chinese looks still more formidable in the absence of South Korean Jin Sun-Yu, who collected the 1,000m, 1,500m and 3,000m-relay golds in Turin. Hampered by injury, Jin could not win a ticket to Vancouver.
“I have a lot of hope not only for me, but for all the team. I hope that we will realise a historical breakthrough in all the races,” Wang told AFP.
The sport became a full Olympic sport in 1992 and China won their first short-track title in 2002 which was also the first-ever Winter Olympic gold for the Asian sporting superpower.
