BEIJING– Some 24 hours after a disastrous fall cost them a shot at a medal in a new relay event at Beijing 2022, South Korean short track speed skaters were back on the same ice on Sunday.
The training session at Capital Indoor Stadium, the very place where the South Korean mixed relay team crashed out of the quarterfinals on Saturday, had a decidedly somber tone.
There was much less chatter than usual. Skaters didn’t appear to be in any mood for souvenir photos, after ending most of their pre-Olympic training sessions by taking group photos and selfies on the ice.
The quartet of Choi Min-jeong, Lee Yu-bin, Hwang Dae-heon and Park Jang-hyuk couldn’t even make it out of the quarterfinals, the first phase of the competition. With South Korea in third place behind China and Italy, Park lost his balance and fell with three laps to go in the 18-lap event.
South Korea ended up in third place out of four teams in its quarterfinal race and still clung to hope of advancing to the semifinals. The top two nations from three quarterfinal heats reached the next round, joined by the two fastest teams among third-place teams.
South Korea finished in 2:48.308 and ended up behind the United States (2:39.043) and Kazakhstan (2:43.004) in the rankings of third-place countries.
In what must have been a bittersweet moment for South Korean skaters, China, coached by former South Korean national team boss Kim Sun-tae, claimed the inaugural mixed relay title.
Kim coached South Korea to three gold medals and six medals overall at PyeongChang 2018. From the current South Korean team in Beijing, Choi, Lee, Hwang, Kim A-lang and Kwak Yoon-gy had skated under Kim Sun-tae in PyeongChang.
Kim’s top assistant is Victor An, the naturalized Russian ex-short tracker who was born Ahn Hyun-soo in South Korea. He won a record six gold medals during his skating career — three for South Korea in 2006 and three for Russia in 2014.
China’s practice immediately preceded South Korea’s session.
After Sunday’s training, Kwak Yoon-gy, the usually ebullient one who has helped keep his teammates loose, took a few moments to gather his thoughts before answering a simple question about the mood within the team.
“The relay didn’t play out quite the way we’d expected,” he said. “It was a disappointing race.”
Asked if he’d said anything to his teammates to cheer them up, Kwak said, “No matter what I tell them now, it probably won’t get to them at this point. I think I will take my time and just keep an eye on them for now.”
Source: Yonhap News Agency