S. Korea snatches 4 gold medals at Asiad

By Yoon Chul

South Korean alpine skier Kim Sun-joo became Korea’s first gold medalist at the 2011 Asian Winter Games in Almaty, Kazakhstan, Monday, as the country’s skaters again proved their prowess by collecting another two gold medals in the short track events.

Vancouver Olympic gold medalist Lee Seung-hoon also took gold in the men’s 5,000-meter speed skating event in 6:25.55.

Kim crossed the finish line clocking in at 1:37.61 in the alpine skiing ladies’ downhill event.

At the National Indoor Cycle Arena in Astana Noh Jin-kyu and Cho Ha-ri won in the men’s and women’s 1,500-meter event, respectively.

Noh finished the race with the time of 2:18.998 and his teammate Um Cheon-ho was just .339 behind for silver medal.

While the two Koreans dominated the race Liu Xianwei of China earned bronze medal with 2:19.622.

In the women’s event Cho was .179 seconds ahead of Park Seung-hi‘s 2:38.621.

Biba Sakurai of Japan took the bronze.

Jung Dong-hyun was the first medalist for Korea in the Games with a bronze in the men’s alpine skiing downhill with a time of 1:29.78.

In the speed skating Kim Bo-reum earned a valuable silver in the women’s 3,000 meters.

With four gold, three silver and one bronze medal, Korea ranked second in the standings while host country Kazakhstan topped with six gold, seven silver and six bronze medals.