Beijing, China, February 5, 2022: China made history by winning the first mixed team relay race on the opening night of short track speed skating at the Capital Indoor Stadium on Saturday night.
The Chinese four – Qu Chunyu, Fan Kexin, Wu Dajing and Ren Ziwei – lived up to their world No. 1 ranking by beating Italy in a photo finish in an electrifying final. Hungary received the bronze after Canada was penalized and disqualified.
China completed the 18 laps (2,000 metres) in 2 minutes, 37.348 seconds, ahead of Italy in 2:37.364. Hungary clocked 2:40.900.
China came into the first mixed team relay in Olympic history as favourites on the strength of their World Cup form, with two gold medals, one silver and one bronze, but looked to have lost their chance of a place in the final when finishing third behind Hungary and the United States in the second semi-final.
After a lengthy review, both the fourth-placed Russian Olympic Committee (obstruction) and the United States (blocking) were given a penalty and disqualified. This promoted China from third to second place behind Hungary and with it a place in the final.
Wu Dajing, who won China’s only gold medal at PyeongChang 2018, in the men’s 500 metres, said: “This is my second gold medal in the Olympic Games. I have been working hard for the last four years and really pushing the envelope.
“This is the first gold medal for the China delegation in these Olympic Games and the first gold medal in this event, so we are very happy to win this first gold medal as it is good motivation for our teammates in other events. We are keeping our hopes high for all Chinese athletes and we will work together to achieve more.”
In the first of the two semi-finals, Canada and Italy took the two places in the final, with Kazakhstan third after the Dutch crashed out of contention. The Dutch beat Kazakhstan in the B final which featured only two teams.
In the first quarter-final, China came home ahead of Italy to book their place in the semi-finals. They were joined later by Kazakhstan – one of the two fastest third-placed teams in the three heats along with the United States.
Korea, surprisingly, was eliminated after finishing third in the first heat behind China and Italy, and Japan was eliminated in fourth place in heat three. The top two in each of the three quarter-finals advanced to the semi-finals along with the two fastest third-placed teams.
Women’s 500 metres
The heats of the women’s 500 metres opened the short track programme and featured Korea’s “Queen of Short Track” Choi Min-jeong, who won two gold medals at PyeongChang 2018 in the women’s 1,500 metres and women’s 3,000 metres relay.
With the top two from each of the eight heats advancing to the quarter-finals, along with the four fastest third-placed skaters, Chinese veteran Fan Kexin made sure of her place by winning heat two in her third Winter Olympics campaign.
Fan was joined in the quarter-finals by teammate Zhang Yuting, who finished second in heat five behind reigning Olympic champion Arianna Fontana of Italy, and by Qu Chunyu, second in heat seven in which Korea’s relay gold medallist in 2018 Lee Yu-bin finished fourth and was eliminated.
Choi easily won heat six, shortly after losing her Olympic record time to the Netherlands’ Suzanne Schulting - 42.379 seconds to eclipse Choi’s 42.422 from PyeongChang 2018. Japan’s Sumire Kikuchi qualified as a third-place finisher and set a new national record of 42.829.
Men’s 1,000 metres – Olympic record for Hwang
The evening continued with the heats of the men’s 1,000 metres and home hope Wu Dajing did not disappoint by making his customary excellent start into the first corner and leading all the way in heat three.
Korea’s Park Janghyuk won heat one, China’s Ren Ziwei won heat two, Korea’s Lee June-seo took heat four and his teammate and world record-holder Hwang Dae-heon won heat five in an Olympic record time of 1:23.042, eclipsing the 1:23.407 set by Canada’s Charles Hamelin at PyeongChang 2018.
Japan’s Kazuki Yoshinaga finished third in heat six but advanced to the next round due to an arm block penalty against Denis Airapetian of the Russian Olympic Committee. China’s Li Wenlong qualified as one of the third-place skaters from the eight heats.