Chinese netizens angered by Winter Olympic ruling over speed skating disqualification; call for retaliation on South Korea

Chinese fans reacted strongly on Wednesday after a chaotic women’s 3,000 metre short-track speedskating relay final ended in China being controversially disqualified from the running for a silver medal.

South Korea took the gold medal after Canada was also disqualified from the race, with Italy clinching the silver medal. The Netherlands, who did not make the final and instead won the B final in a world record time, was awarded bronze.

The government-run TV station accused the world body of “inconsistent ruling” claiming: “South Korea also committed the same foul as Canada but got away with it.”

Chinese skater Fan Kexin was accused of blocking Choi Min-jeong of South Korea in the final exchange as the Koreans narrowly beat the mainlanders to the finish.

A distraught Fan had to be consoled by teammates Qu Chunyu, Li Jinyu and Zhou Yang on the sidelines.

Zhou said she saw no problem with what they did and hinted at impropriety when she said: “We are blessed to have the next Olympics in Beijing. The Beijing Olympics will definitely be fair, most definitely.”