Lee Seung-hoon clinches 4th gold medal
Speed skater wins men’s mass start at Winter Games
OBIHIRO, Japan (Yonhap) — Speed skater Lee Seung-hoon won the men’s mass start race for his fourth gold medal at the Asian Winter Games here Thursday.
Lee finished his 16-lap race at the top among 12 skaters at Obihiro Forest Speed Skating Rink, some 200 kilometers east of the main host city, Sapporo.
Speed skating drew to a conclusion with South Korea bagging six gold medals, five of them on the men’s side.
Lee is the first South Korean to win four gold medals at one Winter Asiad. Lee had also won gold medals in the 5,000m, 10,000m and team pursuit.
Speed skater Kim Min-seok wins men’s 1,500m gold
OBIHIRO, Japan (Yonhap) — Speed skater Kim Min-seok won the men’s 1,500-meter title for his second gold medal at the Asian Winter Games in Obihiro, Japan, on Thursday.
Kim finished his race in 1:46.26 at Obihiro Forest Speed Skating Rink, some 200 kilometers east of the main host city, Sapporo. Takuro Oda of Japan got the silver medal, half a second behind the South Korean.
Taro Kondo, another Japanese, earned the bronze in 1:47.88.
Kim, 17, earlier won the team pursuit gold medal with Lee Seung-hoon and Joo Hyong-jun on Wednesday.
This was South Korea’s fifth speed skating title at these Asian Games, with the men’s and women’s mass start races remaining Thursday, the final day of speed skating.
Cross-country skier Kim Magnus wins silver
SAPPORO, Japan (Yonhap) — Cross-country skier Kim Magnus won silver medal in the men’s 10-kilometer classic at the Asian Winter Games here Thursday.
Kim finished in second place with the time of 25:32.5, 16.9 seconds behind the gold medalist, Akira Lenting of Japan, at Shirahatayama Open Stadium.
This was Kim’s second medal at these Asian Games, following his gold medal in the 1.4km sprint classic on Monday.
Kim Bo-reum wins bronze in women’s mass start
OBIHIRO, Japan (Yonhap) — Speed skater Kim Bo-reum won the bronze medal in the women’s mass start at the Asian Winter Games in Obihiro, Japan, on Thursday.
Kim Bo-reum finished her 16-lap race in third place behind two Japanese — Miho Takagi and Ayano Sato — at Obihiro Forest Speed Skating Rink, some 200 kilometers east of the main host city, Sapporo.
Kim won her only gold medal here in the 5,000 meters Wednesday, adding it to silver medals in the 3,000m and the team pursuit.
S. Korea beats China in women’s hockey shoot-out
SAPPORO, Japan (Yonhap) —South Korea defeated China 3-2 in a shoot-out in women’s hockey at the Asian Winter Games on Thursday.
Forward Park Jong-ah, the 10th shooter, scored past Wang Yuqing to clinch South Korea’s second win of the tournament at Tsukisamu Gymnasium.
South Korea rallied from a pair of one-goal deficits and the teams were tied at 2-2 after three periods of regulation and a five-minute overtime period.
South Korea had lost seven previous meetings against China, by the margin of 90-2.
This was the first time South Korea netted more than one goal against China.
China got on the board first with a power-play goal at 10:36 in the first, as Yu Bawei’s wrist shot from the point beat the goalie Shin So-jung, with Kong Minghui setting the screen.
South Korea evened the score with 33 seconds remaining in the frame with a short-handed goal by forward Park Jong-ah.
After South Korea established a presence in the Chinese zone, the puck landed on defenseman Park Chae-lin’s stick at the point. She sent a low shot toward the net, and Park Jong-ah, parked all alone at the top of the crease, deftly redirected the puck past the goalie Wang Yuqing.
It was South Korea’s first goal since beating Thailand 20-0 to open the tournament last Saturday.
It didn’t take long for China to regain the lead, as Kong scored the go-ahead goal at 2:18 in the second. South Korea failed to clear the puck out of its own zone after several attempts, and in the ensuing scramble near the crease with Shin’s stick loose on the ice, Kong poked one home to make it 2-1 China.
South Korea refused to go down without fighting, tying the score at 17:03 in the second as the No. 1 line came through.
With South Korea applying some pressure, Caroline Park was at the right place at the right time, jumping on the rebound after Wang stopped Lee Eun-ji’s shot from the point-blank range.
The teams couldn’t find the back of the net in the spirited third period. The overtime, with only three skaters per side, solved nothing, and Park Jong-ah delivered the winner in the shoot-out.
Park had actually scored as the team’s second shooter, though Kong answered for China as her team’s second shooter.
The goalies for each team stood tall, as the tense shoot-out extended to 10 shooters a side.
Kong was denied by Shin, and then Park finally put one past Wang to clinch the emotional victory.