Chinese skater Guo Yihan wins China' s third short-track gold at Winter Universiade

Source:Xinhua Published: 2013-12-21 11:36:24

Chinese skater Guo Yihan on Friday snatched China's third short-track gold medal at the 26th Winter Universiade held in northern Italy.

The 18-year old won the women's 1000-meter gold, but crashed in the 3000m relay and failed to sweep all the golds in women's short track speed skating for China.

Guo, who is from the Changchun Normal University, finished the 1000m competition in one minute and 35.691 seconds followed by South Korean Lee Eun-Byul.

The bronze went to Tao Jiaying of China, a 20-year-old athlete from the Harbin Institute of Physical Education, who set the new Universiade record with the time of 1:30.862 in the quarter-finals.

Guo could not continue her winning form in the 3000m relay where she crashed midway.

"I feel very sorry indeed for my teammates because I crashed," she said.

"For some of my teammates, this was the only occasion to win a medal here. Unfortunately they could not get it due to my mistake... they tried to comfort me, but I really feel sorry," Guo added.

She said her mistakes at the Winter Universiade would be precious experience that will certainly help her grow up in her career.

Chinese team coach Yi Min shared his mixed feeling about the Chinese skaters' performance of the day.

"We are very happy that we won the gold in the 1000m, although it was a shame that we did not manage to get all the three medals in the 1000m race as planned," the Chinese team's coach Yi Min said.

Yi added the Chinese team were disappointed that they did not triumph in the 3000m relay where South Korea won the gold.

However, the coach pointed out, it was understandable for the young Chinese skaters to make mistakes as most of them never competed in a major international event before.

As what China did in women's races, South Korea continued their domination in the men's short track races.

In the men's 1000m competition, South Korean Noh Jinkyu took the gold in 1:25.506 followed by his compatriot Um Cheonho. Guillaume Bastille from Canada came in third.

In the semi-finals, Um established the new Universiade record in 1:25.079.

Also on Friday, a day before the 10-day Universiade closing, Hungary made history as they triumphed in the men's 5000m relay to win their first ever gold medal in short track in the history of the Universiades.

"This success is awesome. In last Winter Universiade we only got bronze in the women's race, while this time we will come back from Italy with one gold medal," said Viktor Knoch, a skater of the Hungarian winning team.

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