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Koreans claim silver, bronze in hectic men's 500m short track Asian Games race

Published: 08 Feb. 2025, 15:11

Park Ji-won, left, and Jang Seong-woo celebrate winning silver and bronze medals, respectively, in the short track men's 500-meter final at the Asian Winter Games in Harbin, China, on Feb. 8. [YONHAP]

Park Ji-won and Jang Sung-woo of Korea claimed silver and bronze medals in the men's 500-meter short track speed skating race at the Asian Winter Games in China on Saturday.

Park finished in second place behind Lin Xiaojun of China, a naturalized athlete born Lim Hyo-jun in Korea, in the messy and intense final at the Heilongjiang Ice Events Training Center Multifunctional Hall in Harbin.

Earlier Saturday, Park won gold medals in the mixed 2,000m relay and the men's 1,500m.

Jang's bronze was also his third medal of this competition. He did not skate in the mixed relay final but competed in the semifinals on Friday and will receive his gold medal. He then won bronze in the 1,500m Saturday.

A third Korean in the four-and-a-half-lap final, Kim Tae-sung, was disqualified after colliding with Sun Long of China during the second restart.

In the first go-around, Kim and Sun got tangled up and fell on the first corner to force a restart. After a couple of lapses of the second start, four out of five skaters fell down, with Lin taking down Park and Sun and Kim getting mixed up once again.

With Kim out of the mix, Sun and Lin jumped out to an early lead. With two laps to go, Park briefly grabbed the lead after skating past the two Chinese skaters before Lin moved ahead for good over the final stretch.

It was a bittersweet moment for Lin, who won a gold and a bronze medal for Korea at the 2018 Winter Games but switched allegiances in 2020 amid a protracted legal battle over sexual harassment charges filed by a teammate.

Yonhap