Korea continues unbroken roller skating medal run with two more silvers

Korea added two more silvers to the roller skating medal haul on Monday, taking second place in both the women’s and men’s speed skating 3,000-meter relays.

Korea's Jung Cheol-won, right, crosses the finish line in the men's speed skating 3,000-meter relay at Qintang Roller Sports Centre in Hangzhou, China, finishing 0.1 seconds behind Chinese Taipei to take silver in the event. [YONHAP]

Korea added two more silvers to the roller skating medal haul on Monday, taking second place in both the women’s and men’s speed skating 3,000-meter relays.

The women’s team were first in the roller rink at Qintang Roller Sports Centre in Hangzhou, China on Monday, with Park Min-jeong, Lee Ye-rim, Lee Se-ul and Yu Ga-ram combining for a time of 4 minutes and 21.146 seconds, finishing just behind Chinese Taipei’s 4 minutes and 19.447 seconds.

India took third but were well out contention, crossing the finish line more than 10 seconds after the final Korean racer.

The men’s team then managed the feat almost exactly a few minutes later, Jeong Byeong-hee, Jung Cheol-won, Choi In-ho and Choi Gwang-ho finishing their race just 0.1 seconds behind Chinese Taipei to take silver.

India again finished third, trailing 5 seconds behind the Korean team.

While there's no shame in silver, the second-place finish will come as a disappointment for Korea. The men's team had led the race and looked sure to take gold, falling short only because Jung started to celebrate before crossing the line, creating an opening for Chinese Taipei's Huang Yu-Lin to beat him past the post.

Monday’s medals add to an already impressive medal haul in the sport, where Korea has been quietly racking up the podium finishes since events began on Saturday.

Korea has so far medaled in every single roller skating event, kicking things off with a bronze for Yu in the women’s 10,000-meter point-elimination race on Saturday and quickly adding a gold for Jeong and another bronze for Choi In-ho in the equivalent men’s race on the same day.

That success continued on Sunday, when Lee Ye-rim took bronze in the women’s 1,000-meter sprint and Choi Gwang-ho and Jung then added gold and silver in the men’s event.

In total, Korea now has two gold, three silver and three bronze medals in roller skating after just six races, winning more medals than any other country but falling behind Chinese Taipei on the country’s four gold medals.

Korea and Chinese Taipei have split all but one of the gold and silver medals available, with China winning a single silver, and all but two of the bronze medals, with India taking the relay bronzes.

There are no roller skating medal events scheduled Tuesday, but the medal hunt will continue Wednesday with the mixed inline freestyle skating slalom pair event.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]