Triple Olympic champions were met with surprise loss in the first day competition of the short track speedskating events at the 6th Asian Winter Games on Monday.

Jin Sun-Yu and Ahn Hyun-Soo, both of South Korea who won three gold medals each in the Turin Winter Olympics last year, had their mayday when both of them were beaten to the second.

Sui Baoku of China gave the capacity home spectators a happy night in the Five-Ring stadium by taking the men's 1,500m crown while Jung Eun-Ju of South Korea upset her compatriot Jin to lift the women's 1,500m title.

The 20-year-old Sui edged to the men's 1,500m title in two minutes and 20.590 seconds, leaving Korean Ahn to the second place in 2:20.679.

"I was waiting for the chance to overtake the leading skaters and it final came. I am happy," said Sui, who lagged behind for much of the time but rushed to the front only in the final laps.

"I won confidence from the victory because Ahn is so strong that I never got to win over him before," he added.

Li Ye, 23, the skater from Jilin province where the Games is being held, had to settle for the bronze in 2:21.131, saying "it is a great pity that I did not win. I expected a gold on home soil."

Earlier, Jung seized the hotly-competed women's event in 2:24.089, beating teammate Jin to the second place.

Jin, the women's 1,000m, 1,500m and 3000m relay winner at the Turin Olympics last year, had to settle for the silver in 2:24.124.

China's gold hopeful Wang Meng, the 500m Olympic winner in Turin, took the bronze medal in 2:24.408 after South Korean Byun Chun-Sa was disqualified for pushing.

"I didn't feel much cooperation between our team members. We were at an disadvantage position although we had as many people as South Korea in the final," said Wang.

In the six-member final between China and South Korea, with three from each team, Wang was left alone to compete against the South Korean trio in the last laps after the 17-year-old Zhou Yang stumbled and Chen Xiaolei lagged too far away to help.

And the men's final, another Sino-South Korean duo, finished in an interesting order with the Chinese skaters placing in all odd numbers.

Source: Xinhua