Winter Olympics: China’s Ren Ziwei loses chance of third short-track gold, as Audrey King says ‘I gave it my best’
- Speed skater was looking to add 1,500m title to the 1,000m and team relay golds he has already won
- Hong Kong skier King crashed out of the women’s slalom on her Olympic debut
China’s Ren Ziwei’s chances of a third gold medal in the short-track speedskating disappeared with one push on Wednesday night, after he was disqualified from his 1,500m semi-final for blocking Kazakhstan’s Adil Galiakhmetov.
“Yeah. I mean, no,” she said in response to a question on whether she would continue to compete at these Olympics. “I will try to reset again. Maybe try to reset better this time. But I also don’t know how to do it better because … I just don’t. I’ve never been in this position before and I don’t know how to handle it.”
The next two races in the women’s individual alpine programme are the super-G on Friday followed by the downhill on Tuesday. The individual programme ends with the alpine combined race on February 17.
Ren, meanwhile, was left to wonder what might have been, given that he was only trailing Hungary’s Shaoang Liu and South Korea’s Park Jang-hyuk in third at the time of his unnecessary offence, a position that would have been good enough to get him into the final.
Ren takes gold in dramatic 1,000m race, as China end day with three medals
As it was, Park’s compatriot Hwang Dae-heon, who was disqualified from the 1,000m that Ren won on Monday, took gold, with Canada’s Steven Dubois taking silver and ROC’s Semen Elistatov bronze in a photo finish.
Chinese fans took to Weibo to applaud their skater’s efforts, with one user saying: “A foul is a foul, we accept it, [China will] work hard for the next one!”
But there was better news for the host nation in the women’s 1,000m, where Qu Chunyu, Zhang Chutong and Han Yutong all qualified for Friday’s quarter-finals.
The trio will have their work cut out for them though, with the Netherlands’ Suzanne Schulting breaking the Olympic record in her heat. Schulting posted a 1:27.292, with Han just behind in 1:27.401.
China’s women had a good day in the 3,000m relay speedskating event too, posting the second fastest time to qualify for Sunday’s final.
While King may well get to have another go in four years time, the same cannot be said for three-time Olympic gold medallist Shaun White. The American snowboarder has already said this will be his last Games, but he will get to go out challenging for another medal.
You’re my ‘day 1’ Gu tells fellow Winter Olympian Su in heartfelt Instagram post
After a nervy start, White bounce back on his second run to qualify in fifth with a score of 86.25. And while White falling during his first attempt was note worthy for its rarity, one of the main talking points was the mystery surrounding China’s Gao Hongbo.
Gao slid down the half-pipe without completing a trick, and then did not appear for his second run. There have been suggestions Gao was injured on Monday during a training session.
In the women’s half-pipe, Cai Xuetong and Lui Jiayu both advanced to the semi-finals, which take place on Thursday morning.
