Her time has come
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Shim Suk-hee reacts after winning the women’s 3,000-meter superfinal at the World Short Track Speed Skating Championships in Montreal, Sunday. / AP-Yonhap
Olympic star Shim dominates short-track world championships
By Kim Tong-hyung
Teenager Shim Suk-hee strengthened her case as the new face of Korea’s proud short-track speed skating team, securing the women’s overall title at the world championships in Montreal on Sunday.
The 17-year-old high school student won the 1,000-meter and 1,500-meter sprints before topping the 3,000-meter superfinal, which gave her 102 accumulative points, becoming the country’s first overall champion in the women’s competition since Cho Ha-ri in 2011.
Her compatriot Park Seung-hi, who won two gold medals at the recent Sochi Olympics, was a distant second with 73 points, while Canadian Valerie Maltais finished third.
At the world championships, the winners of each competition receive 34 points, runners-up 21 points and third-place finishers 13 points. The top eight skaters in points after the 500-, 1,000- and 1,500-meter events qualify for the 3,000-meter superfinal.
Shim won three medals in her first Olympic appearance in Sochi, anchoring Korea’s 3,000-meter relay team that took the gold and adding a silver in the 1,500 meters and a bronze in the 1,000 meters.
While the 22-year-old Park is the more experienced skater, Shim is thought to have a higher ceiling, considering her combination of speed and skills that is rare for a skater her age.
In the men’s competition at Montreal, Viktor Ahn, the former Korean Olympic great who now skates for his adopted homeland Russia, became the overall champion with 63 points. He finished fourth in the 500 and 1,500 meters and won the 1,000 meters and 3,000-meter superfinal.
J.R. Celski of the United States finished second with 55 points, followed by Charles Hamelin of Canada at 48 points.
Ahn, the all-time leader in short-track gold medals with six, switched allegiance to Russia in 2011, a year after he was left off the Korean Olympic team for the Vancouver Games as he recovered from injury.
Ahn redeemed himself by winning three gold medals in Sochi, which added to the three he won for Korea in the 2006 Turin Games.
Korea has been a traditional powerhouse in short-track speed skating, winning 21 Olympic gold medals in the sport from 1992 Albertville Games to the recent Sochi Games.