South Korea wins silver, bronze in men's 500m short track
Hwang Dae-heon finished the 4 1/2-lap race in 39.854 seconds at Gangneung Ice Arena in Gangneung, with Wu Dajing of China winning the gold with a world record time of 39.584. Lim Hyo-jun took third place in 39.919 seconds. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
South Korean short tracker Hwang Dae-heon took silver and teammate Lim Hyo-jun grabbed bronze in the men's 500 meters at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics on Thursday.
Hwang finished the 4 1/2-lap race in 39.854 seconds at Gangneung Ice Arena in Gangneung, with Wu Dajing of China winning the gold with a world record time of 39.584. Lim took third place in 39.919 seconds.
No South Korean man has won the 500m gold in short track since Chae Ji-hoon at Lillehammer 1994, the first time the 500m became a medal sport.
But this was the first time South Korea produced two medalists in the men's 500m at the same Olympics.
Wu had the fastest start out of the gate and never lost his lead. Lim was slightly ahead of Hwang in second place at the start, but Hwang took over in the second lap and remained ahead of his teammate, with the fourth skater, Samuel Girard of Canada, unable to find space to make his move.
The two South Koreans had no answer for Wu, who won his first 500m gold after settling for silver in Sochi four years ago. The silver is Hwang's first career Olympic medal. Lim had earlier won the 1,500m gold medal. They will go for a gold in the men's 5,000m relay later Thursday. (Yonhap)