Korea adds 3 more golds at roller championship

The Koreans ruled the 2015 Roller Speed Skating World Championships track relays, claiming three out of four gold medals, Tuesday.

At the championships at Kaohsiung Arena in Taiwan, the trio of Hong Seung-gi, Lee Myung-kyu and Choi Gwang-ho finished the men’s 3,000-meter relay in 3:42.901, besting France with 3:54.959 and Venezuela with 3:55.002. This is the first time that Korea has won a senior men’s relay gold medal in a roller speed skating world championship.

Younger skaters were also dominant in relays. Park Ji-su, Jeong Go-eun, Choi Ye-woon and Kim Hee-su clocked 4:20.081 to win the junior ladies’ 3,000-meter relay over Colombia and Taiwan. Earlier in the day, Choi won the junior ladies’ 1,000-meter sprint final with a time of 1:30.331.

In the junior men’s 3,000-meter relay, Jeong Byeon-kwan, Jung Cheol-won and Kim Min-gi teamed up to clock the fastest 4:00.128, followed by Italy and Taiwan.

The host won the senior ladies’ 3,000-meter relay, posting 4:17.553.

Shin So-yeong, who set a world record of 25.702 in the 300-meter time trial a day earlier, raced in the 500-meter sprint, but settled for silver, after allowing Colombia’s Yersi Puello to pass him in the dying seconds.

As of Tuesday night, Korea has six medals in total and ranked No. 2 in the medal table. Colombia leads the table with 13 gold, six silver and five bronze. From today, Korean skaters will compete in road events.