ALMATY – South Korean alpine skier Kim Sun Joo won her second gold medal at the Asian Winter Games here on Tuesday finishing with a time of one minute 10.83sec in the women’s Super-G event.
“I’m pleased with my performance here both today and overall so far,” the 25-year-old said. “I have a chance to secure a hat-trick here and I will do my best to win the Super Combined Friday.” Lyudmila Fedotova of Kazakhstan won her second silver medal finishing second 0.5sec behind Kim, while another South Korean Jung Hyeme was 3rd.
Speedskater Joji Kato of Japan was the hero of the day setting up two new Asian records – 34.98sec at the 500m distance and 70.00sec as the summary of two heats to add a gold medal to his team’s collection. Lee Kang Seok of South Korea was second, while another Japan skater, Keichihro Nagashima, finished third. In the second day of the Games, Chinese athletes, who managed to grab only one gold on Monday, shifted up a gear by winning five more gold medals.
They dominated the freestyle competitions in the aerials with Zhang Xin and Jia Zongyang winning the women’s and men’s golds. Yang Yu also added a bronze medal in the women’s aerials, while Liu Zhongqing was second in the men’s event. In short track China’s Liu Qiuhong was in complete command in the women’s 500m distance leading the race from the start to finish 0.76sec ahead of a compatriot Fan Kexin. Japan’s Yui Sakai clinched the bronze medal.
Liang Wenhao meanwhile won the same distance in the men’s section of the event finishing ahead of two Japanese athletes, Takahiro Fujimoto and Ryosuke Sakazume.
Yu Jing, who also set a new Asian record, clocking a time of 37.85sec in the first heat, and Wang Beixing were first and 2nd respectively over the 500m distance in women’s speed skating bringing two more medals to their country’s haul. Lee Sang Hwa of South Korea placed third.
Meanwhile, the hosts also added four gold medals to their haul to collect an impressive tally of 10 gold and 27 medals overall – the Games best so far. In cross-country skiing, Oxana Yatskaya and Elena Kolomina were in a class of their own in the women’s team sprint winning the event with a 36sec advantage ahead of the second-placed Chinese duo Man Dandan and Li Hongxue. Naoko Omori and Yuki Kobayashi of Japan came third. Alexei Poltoranin, who won gold in the men’s sprint on Monday, added another gold award to his trophy belt winning the men’s team sprint together with Nikolay Chebotko.
They finished 13 seconds ahead of Japanese pair Masaya Kimura and Nobu Naruse, who won the silver medals. South Korea’s Park Byung-Joo and Jung Eui-Myung were third.
In alpine skiing Dmitriy Koshkin and Igor Zakurdayev, who were first and second respectively in the men’s downhill on Monday, traded places to set up another one-two finish for Kazakhstan in the Super-G.
The bronze medal went to Mohammad Kiyadarbandsari of Iran, who chalked up first podium place for his country so far. Biathlete Alexandr Chervyakov was 12 seconds behind Ren Long of China after the second shooting with two missed targets at the men’s 10km sprint distance. However, huge support from the home crowd spurred on the 30-year-old veteran and he managed to overcome the gap to finish 6.3sec ahead of second-placed Ren. Junji Nagai of Japan finished third.
