South Korea continued its domination at the 2009-2010 season World Cup short-track first leg, finishing the men's events with a clean gold sweep and snatching the women's 3,000 meters relay title as well here on Sunday.
Lee Jung-Su, who finished third in Saturday's 1,500 meters final, clinched the men's 1,000m title in one minute and 25.630 seconds.
Charles Hamelin of Canada took the silver with 1:25.767, 0.101 seconds ahead of bronze medalist Kim Seoung II from South Korea.
In the women's 3,000m relay, the South Korean foursome, consisting of Cho Ha-Ri, Park Seung-Hi, Lee Eun-Byul and Kim Min-Jung, beat the United States to clinch the title in four minutes 13.531 seconds.
Canada took the bronze in 4:17.495.
All the skaters from the four teams, vying for the leading position, fell down at the first corner of the first lap, and the race had to be restarted.
Although Wang Meng, anchorwoman of the Chinese team, hinted on Saturday that China had pinned the Olympic gold hope on the relay events, the local team failed to find their luck in front of a jubilating crowd, tumbling down in last laps of the race.
The South Korean team also pocketed 5,000m relay gold to finish their title sweep in the men's arena, as Sung Si-Bak and Kwak Yoon-By snatched the men's 1,500m and 500m gold respectively on Saturday.
This is the fifth gold medal for South Korea during the four-day tournament in which there were eight golds on offer.
The women's 1,000m gold was the only one "neglected" by the South Koreans on Sunday. American skater Katherine Reutter edged Lee Eun-Byul to notch the gold in one minutes 32.047 second, while Lee took the silver with 0.109 seconds adrift.
"I am very excited because it was my first individual gold medal," said Reutter, who also took a bronze in Saturday's 1,500m final.
Reutter's teammate Jessica Smith earned the bronze medal in 1:34.165. Local favorite Wang Meng, Olympic gold medalist in the 2006 Turin Games, falling down during the race and only finishing at the bottom.
Talking about the team's two tumbles, Chinese coach Li Yan said, "This kind of mistakes can be made during next year's Olympics. And today's defeat just gave us the alert."
The 2009/2010 ISU World Cup Short-Track includes four stops, namely Beijing, Seoul, Montreal and Marquette in the United States. The World Cup competitions in Montreal and Marquette to beheld in November have been designated as the 2010 Winter Olympic Games qualifying competitions.
Source: Xinhua
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