By Kim Jae-won
Staff Reporter
South Koreans won three gold medals at the 24th Winter Universiade in Harbin, China, Thursday.
Lee Sang-hwa and Lee Kang-seok brought home the nation's first two golds of the competition after winning in the women's and men's 500-meter speed skating, while short tracker Lee Seung-hoon finished first in the men's 1,500 meters on the second day of the biennial collegiate sports festival.
Adding gold medals to their tallies, the speed skaters both claimed the top gongs at the previous Universiade, in Turin, Italy.
Lee Sang-hwa finished in 76.36 seconds, the combined time of her two races, to eclipse her competition record of 77.06, set in Turin.
Lee, 19, who attends Korea National Sport University, clocked 38.20 seconds in the first race and 38.16 in the second.
Yu Jing of China grabbed silver with a time of 76.89, and was followed by her compatriot Zhang Shuang, who finished in 77.30.
South Korean Lee Bo-ra came in 7th in 79.10.
On the men's side, Lee Kang-seok edged out Chinese Yu Fengtong by 0.05 seconds ― 69.82 to 69.87.
Lee, 23, recorded 35.00 and 34.92 in each race. Fellow Korean Mo Tae-bum took bronze in 70.53.
In the men's short-track competition, Korea swept the 1,500-meter final. Lee Seung-hoon crossed the finish line in 2 minutes and 18.016 seconds and was followed by Kim Seoung-il and Yun Tae-sik, who finished in 2:18:203 and 2:18.511, respectively.
But Korean women failed to claim a podium finish in the 1,500 meters, as the host nation took all three medals.
Zu Yang gave China its first gold medal, while Liu Qiuhong and Sun Linlin earned silver and bronze.
With three gold, one silver and two bronze medals, Korea is atop the table, and runner-up China has one gold, three silver and two bronze medals.
Korea topped the Turin Winter Universiade with 10 gold medals in 2007.