Harbin: Park Ji-won and Jang Sung-woo of South 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 South Korea, in the messy and intense final at Heilongjiang Ice Events Training Center Multifunctional Hall in Harbin.
According to Yonhap News Agency, earlier on Saturday, Park had 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. Although Jang did not skate in the mixed relay final, he had competed in the semifinals on Friday and will receive his gold medal. He then won bronze in the 1,500m on the same day.
A third Korean participant in the 4 1/2-lap final, Kim Tae-sung, faced disqualification after colliding with Sun Long of China during the second restart. During the initial attempt, Kim and Sun got tangled up and fell on the first corner, necessitating a restart. In the subsequent laps of the second start, four out of five skaters fell, with Lin taking down Park, and Sun and Kim becoming entangled once again.
With Kim out of contention, Sun and Lin took an early lead. With two laps remaining, Park briefly took the lead after passing the two Chinese skaters, before Lin regained the lead for good over the final stretch. It was a bittersweet moment for Lin, who had previously won a gold and a bronze medal for South Korea at the 2018 Winter Games but switched allegiance in 2020 amid a legal battle over sexual harassment charges filed by a teammate.