By Kang Seung-woo
Staff Reporter
South Korea has wrapped up the first Short Track World Cup in Beijing, China with five gold medals.
The nation continued its strong run Sunday, the final day of the event, adding three gold medals.
The event is the first leg of the four-series competition, which will be followed by competitions in Seoul, Montreal and Marquette, Mich.
The last two will be the qualifiers for the Vancouver Winter Olympics next year.
Lee Jung-su clocked in at 1 minute 25.630 seconds in the men's 1,000 meters to edge Charles Hamelin of Canada by 0.137 seconds.
Kim Seoung-il came in third with a time of 1:25.868.
Lee also won a bronze medal in the 1,500 on Saturday.
In the women's 3,000-meter relay final the South Korean team of Cho Ha-ri, Park Seung-hi, Lee Eun-byul and Kim Min-jung crossed the finish line first in 4:13.531 to defeat distant runner-up the U.S. team by more than a second.
The men's relay team, comprised of Lee Ho-suk, Kwak Yoon-gy, Kim and Lee, closed out South Korea's gold rush, topping the 5,000 relay, beating home side China - 6:51.371 to 6:51.926.
On Saturday, Sung Si-bak and Kwak gave Korea two gold medals.
Sung finished in 2 minutes, 25.386 seconds to edge compatriot Lee Ho-suk by nine-hundredths of a second in the final of the 1,500 meters, while Kwak defeated Sung in the 500 meters, an event in which South Korea has struggled, to give the Korean team a bright outlook ahead of the Winter Olympics in February.
Through the event, men's team proved it is still a heavyweight in the sport, while the Korean women struggled in the individual races, winning only one gold medal in the relay.