Lee snatches silver in 10,000m in World Cup

By Yoon Chul

Korean speed skating Olympic gold medalist Lee Seung-hoon earned a silver medal in the men’s 10,000 meters in the ISU World Cup Speed Skating event in Salt Lake City, Sunday (KST).

At the Utah Olympic Oval, Lee crossed the finish line in a time of 12:57.27 seconds while Vancouver Olympic silver medalist Bob de Jong of the Netherlands clocked in at 12:53.17 to clinch the top spot.

Lee broke his own Korean record but it wasn’t enough for gold.

The 22-year-old started in Group 4 and took less than 32 seconds for each lap except the first, which was a world top class pace.

The Dutchman, who was in the last group, however, was faster _ in 25 laps he only went over 31 seconds for a lap six times.

Though the Korean finished second it was a good result for the exhausted skater. Last week in the Asian Winter Games, he skated a total of 27 kilometers in several events collecting three gold medals.

The next event for the rising Korean speed skater is the ISU World Single Distances Speed Skating Championships.