Korean players are sweeping the ice this winter as well.
Kim Min-seon (23, Uijeongbu City Hall), who emerged as the “new empress of ice speed,” continued winning the World Cup 500m 4 times in a row. Kim Min-sun took first place with 36 seconds and 96 seconds in the Women’s 500m Division A (Part 1) of the 2022-2023 International Skating Union (ISU) Speed Skating World Cup 4th Competition held at the Olympic Oval in Calgary, Canada on the 17th. On the 10th, she surpassed her personal record (36 seconds 972) in one week, which she set at her 3rd meet at the same venue.
Kim Min-sun was the only one out of the 20 players who participated that day to cross the finish line with a record of 36 seconds, showing off her overwhelming skills. It was 0.30 seconds ahead of Miho Takagi (Japan, 37 seconds and 26 seconds), the silver medalist at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, who placed second. 0.30 seconds in ice speed sprint is a very large gap. There was a difference of 0.27 seconds between Takagi in second place and Dior Fosscamp (Netherlands, 37.53 seconds) in 10th place.
In the men’s 500m, Kim Jun-ho (27, Gangwon Provincial Office) rose to the top. Kim Jun-ho won the Men’s 500m Division A at the 4th World Cup held on the 18th, setting a personal best of 34.07 seconds. He overtook American Jordan Stolz (34.08) by 0.01 second. This is the second gold medal won in three years since the first competition of the 2019-2020 season held in November 2019.
It is the first time in nine years since Lee Sang-hwa and Mo Tae-beom (retired) in the 2013-2014 season that Korean athletes have won the men’s and women’s 500m side by side in an event like the World Cup. Lee Sang-hwa and Mo Tae-beom won the 500m gold medal together at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and won two consecutive gold medals at the world championships, leading the heyday of Korean ice speed sprinters.
Kim Min-seon won 4 consecutive 500m gold medals in the 1st to 4th World Cup competitions this season, keeping her first place with 240 points in the World Cup rankings for the season. He further widened the gap with 2nd place Utah Leirdam (Netherlands, 190 points). Kim Jun-ho won the gold medal following the bronze medals in the 1st and 3rd competitions this season and rose to third place in the World Cup rankings this season.
In the short track, Park Ji-won (26, Seoul City Hall), the signboard of the men’s national team, ran a golden race. Park Ji-won took first place in the men’s 1000m final at the 4th World Cup held in Almaty, Kazakhstan on the 18th with a time of 1:24.573. Having won gold medals in the 1500m and mixed relay the previous day, he won three gold medals for the second time in the season following the first event.
Park Ji-won, who returned to the national team three years after the 2019-2020 season, swept eight gold medals in four World Cup tournaments this season. After winning three gold medals (1500m, men’s relay, mixed relay) in the first competition last month, she added a gold medal each in the second (1000m) and third (1500m) competitions, and won three gold medals again in the fourth competition. 토토
The women’s team, consisting of Kim Gil-ri (Seo Hyeon High School), Lee So-yeon (Sports Toto), Seo Hwi-min (Korea University), and Shim Suk-hee (Seoul City Hall), also beat Canada in the 3,000m relay to claim the gold medal.