Speedsters rally for golden finish
Host overcomes short-track woes to dominate the distance events, reports Sun Xiaochen.
Gao's mark in the dash event — a special ultra-short distance only contested at the Asiad — broke the previous Asian record set by Japanese skater Yuya Oikawa at the 2007 Changchun Games by more than two seconds.
Kazakhstan's Yevgeniy Koshkin finished second, trailing Gao by a mere 0.12 sec, while Gao's rival Kim had to settle for the bronze medal.
Later at the oval, which is staging the Winter Asiad for the second time after hosting the 1996 edition, Chinese speedsters capped off a near-perfect day with a double delight in the 1,500m, after world champion Ning Zhongyan secured a solid win by dominating the men's final with a Games record of 1:45.85, before Han Mei finished ahead of the pack in 1:57.58 in the women's final.
Han's compatriots Yang Binyu and Yin Qi followed in second and third place, respectively, to complete a podium sweep, drawing rousing cheers and applause from the partisan crowd.
"Every member of our team performed well today, and I feel so proud that three of our national flags were raised on the podium at the same time," said Han, a two-time silver medalist at the all-round world championships.
A Harbin native who's spent over 10 years training at the competition oval, Ning said he was over the moon after etching his name in the history of the venue.
"Before the race, I said that my goal is to break the competition record, and, today, I really did it. I've managed to put a Chinese name in the record books, and I'm very proud and very happy," he said.
In the bronze medal match of the mixed doubles curling, the host pair of Han Yu and Wang Zhiyu denied the underdog Filipino duo from winning the Southeast Asian country's first medal at a Winter Asiad.
The Chinese pair rallied from four ends down to beat Kathleen Dubberstein and Marc Pfister 6-5 to clinch the host delegation's first medal of the Games.
"I love and feed on the pressure. This is my first time competing at an event of this size, and I'm very grateful to represent the Philippines," Dubberstein said of her Games debut in Harbin.
