Chinese skaters win two gold medals in Shanghai

Xinhua

Hosts China bounced back after a dismal first day of competition and won two gold medals on Sunday at the ISU short track speed skating World Cup in Shanghai.

Despite being ousted from three relays and an injury-induced absence of Wu Dajing, the Chinese team delivered a good performance on Sunday as Fan Kexin and Han Tianyu claimed a gold medal each. China collected two gold, two silver and two bronze medals at the event.

"I didn't expect much here," said Wang Meng, head coach of the Chinese team. "It's the fourth leg of the World Cup series. We won two golds in the first leg, three in the second, one in the third."

"To me, it is just a World Cup. It's not an Olympic Games; it's not a world championships," said the former four-time Olympic short track speed skating champion. "Our aim is the world championships next year."

Fan won China's first gold in Shanghai. Fan, runner-up in the women's 1,000 meters at the 2014 Sochi Games, won the women's 500 meters final in 42.714 seconds, leaving Dutch Yara van Kerkhof to second place with 42.902. Fan's compatriot Qu Chunyu came third in 43.015.

"I am so excited," said Fan. "It is my first gold medal at the World Cup in four years. I just kept going ahead in the final."

In the men's 1,000 final, Han took the lead with three laps to go and held the advantage until the end. He finished in 1:28.351. Hungary's Shaolin Liu and South Korean Park Ji-won were second and third, respectively.

China's Olympic champion Wu, who injured his waist on Saturday's 500 final, entered the 500 (2) quarters on Sunday but failed to make the semis.

Hungary's Liu won his second 500 title in Shanghai with 40.722. South Korea's Lee June-seo came second in 40.904, while Stevan Dubios of Canada ranked third in 41.289.

The women's 1000 final was dominated by Netherlands' star skater Suzanne Schulting, who crossed the line in 1:29.089. South Korea's Seo Whi-min and Canada's Kim Boutin came second and third, respectively.

Moreover, Canada won the women's 3,000 relay and Russia topped the men's 5,000 relay.