Korea takes nine medals at first short track World Cup of new season

Korean short-track speed skaters took home nine medals at the first International Skating Union (ISU) World Cup of the season in Montreal over the weekend.

Korea's Hwang Dae-heon, front, skates to a first-place finish in the 1500-meter final race at the ISU World Cup Short Track Speed Skating event in Montreal on Saturday. [AP/YONHAP]

Korean short-track speed skaters took home nine medals at the first International Skating Union (ISU) World Cup of the season in Montreal over the weekend.

Korea won four golds, four silvers and one bronze across eight of the 11 events in the three-day competition, which ran from Friday to Sunday.

The national team saw its best performances in the men’s category, which brought home three of the four golds.

Olympic gold-medalist Hwang Dae-heon, 24, won the 1500-meter race with a time of 2 minutes and 23.666 seconds on Saturday — edging out the competition by fractions of a second.

It marked a strong comeback to the international circuit for the Korean skater, who failed to qualify for the national team last season after withdrawing from the selection contest citing lingering health concerns due to an earlier bout with Covid-19.

Hwang, who holds the world record in the men’s short track 1000-meter after winning the event at a 2016 World Cup in Utah at 17 years old, had withdrawn from the April 2022 World Championships after testing positive for the virus, alongside teammate Park Jang-hyuk, during the tournament.

The ISU ran two separate 1,000-meter races in each of the men’s and women’s categories in Montreal.

Hwang, alongside Korea’s Park Ji-won, competed in the second 1,000-meter race but the two collided on the track during the final on Sunday. Park finished fourth while Hwang was hit with a yellow card and his time was not scored.

Korea's Park Ji-won, front, collides with teammate Hwang Dae-heon during the 1000-meter final race at the ISU World Cup Short Track Speed Skating tournament in Montreal on Sunday. [AP/YONHAP]

Korea still came out on top, with Kim Gun-woo taking gold in that 1,000-meter race with a time of 1 minute and 26.712 seconds. And Park still left with a 1,000-meter gold, having won the first 1,000-meter final with a time of 1 minute and 24.903 seconds.

Park, the current World Cup leader in the discipline, earlier took home two gold medals — in the 1,000 and the 1,500 — on home turf at the short track speed World Championships, held in western Seoul in March.

All three men’s gold medalists competed on the men’s 5,000-meter relay team, alongside Jang Sung-woo, to finish with a time of 6 minutes and 55.895 seconds, coming just behind the Canadian team, who clocked 6 minutes and 55.656 seconds.

Kim Gun-woo also competed in the mixed 2,000-meter relay alongside Seo Yi-ra, Kim Gil-li and Shim Suk-hee to take silver with a time of 2 minutes and 40.766 seconds.

The two Kims took home the most medals from Montreal, each with three. Kim Gil-li earned the sole gold medal of the women’s team, winning the second women’s 1,000-meter race with a time of 1 minute and 30.998 seconds. She also took silver in the 1,500, finishing with a time of 2 minutes and 28.012 seconds behind Belgium’s Hanne Desmet, the current leader in the discipline.

In the first women’s 1,000 meter race, Korea’s Lee So-youn took silver with a time of 1 minute and 43.214 seconds while Korea’s Seo Whi-min finished a hair ahead of The Netherlands’ Xandra Velzeboer, with 1 minute and 47.008 seconds, to take bronze. The United States’ Kristen Santos-Griswold, the discipline’s current leader, finished steadily ahead, clocking 1 minute and 31.288 seconds to take gold.

Noticeably absent from the roster is former world No. 1, three-time Olympic gold medalist, 16-time World Cup gold medalist and women's 1,500 meters world record holder Choi Min-jeong, who opted not to try out for the national team this year to focus on her personal fitness.

Skaters will stay in Montreal for the second tournament of the 2023-2024 World Cup series this weekend.

BY MARY YANG [mary.yang@joongang.co.kr]