Lee Jung-su Wins Gold in 1,500m Short Track

[shanny-w.livejournal.com]

Lee Jung-su of South Korea won the men's 1,500-meter short-track final at the Vancouver Winter Olympics on Saturday, bringing South Korea its first gold medal.

Two other South Korean medal favorites _ Sung Si-bak and Lee Ho-suk _ crashed into each other in their final stretch toward the finish. The incident allowed Apolo Anton Ohno and J.R. Celski of the United States to emerge from behind and claim the silver and bronze medals, respectively, according to Yonhap News Agency.


Lee lunged ahead of Ohno with four laps remaining and kept his lead until clocking a finish time of 2:17.611. Ohno, who has become the most decorated U.S. Winter Olympian, finished in 2:17.976 while Celski posted 2:18.053.


Lee complained at a press conference that Ohno was "too aggressive" during the race, adding he would have liked to see the podium swept by his team and that Ohno used his arms too liberally.

"I entered the race expecting I would grab at least a bronze medal if I put my best efforts into it, but I've won the title," he said.

South Korea hoped to achieve a podium sweep when the team entered the race at the Pacific Coliseum with three of the seven competitors coming from the traditional short-track powerhouse.

Lee Ho-suk edged ahead while turning the final corner, grazing against Sung and prompting himself and his compatriot to spin out of the race. Lee was disqualified while Sung finished last.

South Korea has made four top-10 finishes at five previous Olympic Games, a feat that would have been impossible without short-track gold medals. The short track squad has grabbed 29 medals, including 17 golds, out of 31 overall medals South Korea has earned on the Olympic stage.

Earlier in the day, Lee Seung-hoon took the silver medal in the men's 5,000-meter speed skating competition. He clocked in at 6 minutes 16.95 seconds, finishing second to Dutch world champion Sven Kramer, who came through in 6 minutes 14.60 seconds. Russian Ivan Skobrev claimed the bronze in 6 minutes 18:05 seconds.

The 22-year old became Asia's first to win a medal at a long-distance speed skating event at the Olympics.

The former short-track skater has repeatedly set Korean records in the men's 5,000 meters, raising hopes that he could be a surprise medalist in this year's Olympics. His conversion to speed skating occurred just last year following stiff competition in the short-track scene.

"The result was better than expected. Honestly I wasn't certain of being able to win a medal but It came to my mind that I was doing better than I expected while checking the laptime during the race," Lee told reporters.



Korea Times

Comments

[jen-fin.livejournal.com]

APOLO!!!!!!! Yeah!
Can't lie, I was kinda pleased when HoSuk took out SiBak. My bad.

[rushoflove.livejournal.com]

i feel bad for korea but i'm glad ohno & celski got to medal ♥

[erbalurbal.livejournal.com]

He is going to be in a lot of CF's when he gets back to Korea.

[froggster.livejournal.com]

Two other South Korean medal favorites _ Sung Si-bak and Lee Ho-suk _ crashed into each other in their final stretch toward the finish.
I couldn't help but lol. The mental image was just too funny XP


finishing second to Dutch world champion Sven Kramer, who came through in 6 minutes 14.60 seconds.
*feels proud*

[luvey.livejournal.com]

if you watch the highlights of Ohno winning his first medal, you'll see it. kinda funny cause all of a sudden one slides into the other... as Apollo goes for the win.

[logical-fish.livejournal.com]

I was watching the race and going like, "Oh my God, Korea is going to win gold, silver and bronze", and then they took each other out.









Yeah.

[x-keynotes.livejournal.com]

As my my friend described the Hosuk/Sibak incident, "the shibal heard around the world".

I mean, really, WTF.

[nice-vibe.livejournal.com]

Only the first day and the US is ahead~

[dipropylene]

Yay~

Too bad Ahn Hyun Soo didn't make it to the Olympics. He's an eye candy lol

[shanny-w.livejournal.com]

gurl watch it on ctv.

[shanny-w.livejournal.com]

ctv airs it live :O But it's going to highlight canadian athletes since it's a canadian station lol Maybe the ctv on your tv is different.

[corrakun.livejournal.com]

lol ctv is a pos station. they switched to moguls after canada's disappointing showing even though the rain was effing up the cameras and speakers... i think i was watching some girl wipe out on the hill as the koreans utterly failed

[little-gillies.livejournal.com]

Yeah it was like 2 or 3am here and I had to work. >.

[newlines.livejournal.com]

dude, i feel so sorry for lee seung hoon... the guy totally came from nowhere and won the silver, behind kramer. i mean, he wasn't even in the roster for the south korean team on the nbc olympic website... and its their first long distance medal...
anyways i hope that guy gets some love... he did awesome. :)

[newlines.livejournal.com]

not to mention while the american commentators were pretty much only talking about the guy he was racing with (i forget his name... he was also dutch) and they even admitted they didnt have any information on him. and then he won silver. hilarious.

[lilykt7.livejournal.com]

yeah the US always focuses on american athletes, i heard that in some parts of Europe there is a more even coverage of the athletes.

Actually I think the US will also sometimes focus on players with a good backstory (if they have a chance of winning) because everyone likes a good comeback story.

[froggster.livejournal.com]

that was Bob de Jong and he was expected to do better :P

[newlines.livejournal.com]

i think so.
yeah it was kind of funny watching it and they kept talking about de Jong and they were so like wtf is this korean kid??

[beebz-x.livejournal.com]

This guy on his Olympic profile chose Apolo as his idol, so he can shut it.
But I'm happy one Korean got something.

[alexkziel.livejournal.com]

yeah, a mere gold medal and the first place
oh the american pride..

[booksandsarcasm.livejournal.com]

xD It sounds like you're bitter. No one said mere anything but you.

[jasmineakaiumi.livejournal.com]

bringing South Korea its first gold medal

EVER? ._.
Congrats!

[shanny-w.livejournal.com]

LOL NO. Just of these winter olympics :) It was day 2.

[jasmineakaiumi.livejournal.com]

LMFAO oh okay then, that makes more sense. I was having a hard time getting over the fail of never having won anything ever. Thank you for clarifying :'D

[iheartdarkblue.livejournal.com]

lol it was sorta funny how the other two south koreans were trying to beat each other but ended up crashing

[maisoui.livejournal.com]

I'll never understand why ppl will whine/bitch about their countries not medaling. Whoever wins it within the parameter of the rules, wins it. Period. And winning/not winning doesn't make your country any better or worse.

I really want to see this race, I missed it. I feel like I just need to see how much they were pushing each other.

[maisoui.livejournal.com]

I think I meant to post this comment in the post after this one lol.

[newlines.livejournal.com]

i think it was more like bad form, he kind of like stuck his leg in where it shouldnt have been. but it was still stupid.

[light-lee.livejournal.com]

damn that was a good race.

I watched it with my family, and everyone was screaming at the tv because they thought Korea was going to sweep the podium, and then the Koreans wiped out and everyone went crazy.

Ohno, who has become the most decorated U.S. Winter Olympian
wrong. he's tied with some other woman from the 80's or something.

Lee complained at a press conference that Ohno was "too aggressive" during the race...Ohno used his arms too liberally.
I hope he's not speaking of the final race in particular, because Ohno had nothing to do with Sibak and Hosuk falling out.
The one in front caught his back skate on the guy behind's foot, and the behind reached out and pulled the other guy down with him. They played like 6 replays of that part alone.

[newlines.livejournal.com]

he was a little aggressive though in the semi (i think, i cant remember) he like nudged the korean guy.
why is ohno always gettin beef with the koreans?? its kind of hilarious.

[billisamidget.livejournal.com]

That was a freakin' amazing race last night, and I hope he's happier for himself than he is sad about his teammates who had silver and bronze locked, until they sabotaged themselves.

[dangyeonhaji.livejournal.com]

i really enjoyed watching this race, though, and i srsly loled when those two crashed into each other. XD

i'm just happy ohno and that freaking adorable celski kid got the silver and bronze~

[dangyeonhaji.livejournal.com]

but congrats to korea all the same? lololol

[newlines.livejournal.com]

omg celski is so adorable and hes only like 19 ajdfoiajewoij *_*

[dangyeonhaji.livejournal.com]

gasjgklasg ikr! i srsly thought he was a korean celeb the first time i saw him, though. soooo cuuute *Q*

[newlines.livejournal.com]

lols he needs a fanclub. like right now.