Winter Olympics: Hungarian-Chinese Liu Shaoang takes men’s 500m short track gold as home favourites Wu Dajin and Ren Ziwei fail to reach podium
- World champion Liu becomes Hungary’s first-ever individual gold medallist at the Winter Olympics after a dominant win in the final
- China’s women skaters take bronze in the short track 3,000m relay behind the Netherlands and South Korea
China went into Sunday’s men’s 500-metre short-track speedskating event with high hopes of dominating the podium. In the end, it was a man who shares allegiance with Hungary and China who struck gold as defending champion and world record holder Wu Dajing, Ren Ziwei and Sun Long all failed to even reach the final.
World champion Liu Shaoang, whose father is Chinese and mother Hungarian, held off Russia’s Konstantin Ivliev to clock 40.33 seconds and give Hungary their first-ever Winter Olympics individual gold medal. Ivliev timed 40.45 for his silver and Canada’s Steven Dubois finished with the bronze in 40.68.
“I’m still speechless. When I crossed the line, I didn’t show any emotions because I still need some time to realise what happened,” Liu said in his post-final press conference. “I think that when I go back home, my life will change. It’s going to be crazy. We are here to make history.”
Before the Olympics, Liu’s brother Sandor Liu Shaolin – who was knocked out early on Sunday – said their mother had stitched a special Hungary-China flag to be waved if he had won gold in Beijing.
China’s only medal at the Capital Indoor Stadium on Sunday came from the women’s 3,000m relay team of Qu Chunyu, Zhang Chutong, Fan Kexin and Zhang Yuting, who earned bronze behind gold winners the Netherlands, who set an Olympic record, and second-placed South Korea.
There was also gold for Switzerland’s Marco Odermatt in the men’s giant slalom, where Hong Kong’s Adrian Yung failed to finish his first run, and for Norway’s Marte Olsbu Roiseland in the women’s biathlon 10km pursuit. Frenchman Quentin Fillon Maillet won the men’s 12.5km biathlon pursuit gold ahead of Norway’s Tarjei Boe and Russian Eduard Latypov.
Bad weather in the area caused a delay in the men’s slalom, where visibility affected many of the skiers, and the freestyle women’s aerial event at Genting Snow Park was postponed until Monday.
Indoors, though, it was looking bright for hosts China with their powerful line-up of skaters ready for more glory in the men’s 500m short track event. Wu and Ren were part of the mainland squad who won gold in the mixed relay last week while Ren also collected a second title in the men’s 1,000m.
However, neither Ren nor Sun managed to go beyond the quarter-finals. Although Wu confidently won his quarter-final heat, he finished third in the semi-finals – good enough only to reach the B final, which he won.
Odermatt, meanwhile, lived up to expectations by holding his nerve in snow and fog to win gold in the men’s Olympic giant slalom on Sunday in Yanqing.
“It was a hard day, with the conditions, with such a long wait between the two runs,” Odermatt said. “It was more than five hours for me, it was such a long time to rethink everything and it was hard to stay focused. I tried to sleep some minutes in between.”
Roiseland put in a masterclass in the women’s 10km pursuit. Already leading by 30.9 seconds from the sprint which she won two days ago, she extended that advantage with strong shooting, missing only one target.
That was her third gold of the Games, completing the sprint – pursuit double. She’s just the third athlete in Games history to do so. Sweden’s Elvira Oeberg was second with Norway’s Tiril Eckhoff taking the bronze.
Russia won gold in the men’s cross-country 4x10km relay ahead of Norway and France.
Meanwhile, the Court of Arbitration for Sport met on Sunday to decide if 15-year-old Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva can compete again at the Beijing Olympics after she failed a drugs test.
CAS was to hold a video hearing before delivering its verdict on Monday, just a day before Valieva was scheduled to compete in the women’s singles competition, one of the most closely watched events at the Olympics.
