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OLYMPICS
Kim Alang rested her helmeted head on the pads alongside the rink and cried. Then she raised her head and joy replaced tears.
Alang and her South Korea team defended their Olympic short-track 3,000-meter relay title on Tuesday, overtaking China with two laps to go in the penalty-filled final.
The Chinese cried, too. For the second straight Olympics, they crossed the finish line second but got disqualified for impeding. The same thing happened in 2006, too.
As veteran observers of the chaotic sport say, “That’s short track.”
Indeed, and the drama wasn’t over yet.
It took several minutes for the referees to sort out the confusion.
China’s DQ allowed Italy, which finished third, to move up to silver.
Canada was disqualified, too, moving the Netherlands onto the podium for bronze, and the Dutch weren’t even on the ice at the time.
They had won the B final in a world-record time of 4 minutes, 3.471 seconds, bettering South Korea’s mark of 4:04.222 set in November 2016 at Salt Lake City, Utah.
The South Korean team of Shim Suk-hee, Choi Minjeong, Kim Ye-jin and Kim Alang rallied from third spot late in the 27-lap race to win. Four years ago in Sochi, Shim and Kim Alang along with their teammates won when they passed China on the last lap to take the lead.
This time they were at home, and the mostly Korean fans inside Gangneung Ice Arena cheered and waved flags in celebration.
Choi earned her second gold in Pyeongchang, having earlier won the 1,500 final.
The Koreans entered the final ranked first in the world and China was ranked No. 2.
The Canadians, with their arms on each other’s shoulders, watched the overhead video board intently after the race. Their jaws dropped and they initially celebrated before realizing they weren’t the ones to benefit from China’s penalty.
Arianna Fontana of Italy added the relay silver to her earlier gold in the 500. She skated the relay with Lucia Peretti, Cecilia Maffei and Martina Valcepina.
The Dutch team of Suzanna Schulting, Yara van Kerkhof, Lara van Ruijven and Jorien ter Mors watched the chaos unfold from the sidelines, not expecting they would soon be celebrating a medal. Three of them jumped up and down on the pads surrounding the rink. Van Kerkhof earlier earned silver in the 500.
There was plenty of tumult in the relay’s final laps.
China led most of the race until Canada took the lead with six laps to go.
China snatched it right back on the next lap when the trailing Italian skater fell.
The Korean and Canadian skaters fell with four laps remaining and China still in the lead.
The Koreans went back in front and Choi battled Fan Kexin to the finish.
A distraught Fan had to be consoled by teammates Qu Chunyu, Li Jinyu and Zhou Yang on the sidelines.
In the men’s 500 heats, Wu Dajing of China won his heat in an Olympic-record 40.264 seconds.
Lim Hyo-jun, the 1,500 champion, moved on to Thursday’s quarterfinals. Canadian Samuel Girard, the 1,000-meter winner, and 1,000-meter bronze medalist Seo Yira of South Korea also safely advanced.