Han wins silver for China’s 1st Sochi medal
Print Edition
China claimed its first medal at the Sochi Olympics yesterday thanks to a heroic performance by a teenage duo in the men’s 1,500 meters short track speedskating, which was won by Canada’s Charles Hamelin.
Han Tianyu clocked two minutes and 15.055 seconds to finish second in Final A, trailing eventual champion and world No. 1 Hamelin by 0.70 seconds.
“Since it’s my first Olympic Winter Games, I was a little bit nervous and didn’t think very much,” said Han. “I had never thought I could make it to the finals, let alone stand on the podium. I took every round as a final, and tried my best.”
The 17-year-old, who ranked 11th after the 2013-2014 season, equaled the best ever result by a Chinese men’s short tracker at the Olympics. His teammate Chen Dequan, 18, finished fifth in 2:15.626.
Victor An, who collected the men’s 1,000, 1,500 and 5,000 relay titles for South Korea at the Turin Winter Games in 2006 and now represents Russia, had to settle for a bronze in 2:15.062. Due to an injury that nearly ended his career, An, now 28 years old, had skipped the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.
An, going by the name Ahn Hyun-soo when he represented South Korea, is the second winter Olympian to win medals for two different countries that are not politically or constitutionally linked. Speedskater Bart Veldkamp won medals for the Netherlands and Belgium.
Hamelin, 29, won his third career Olympic title in short track and equaled Marc Gagnon’s Canadian record of three golds in this sport. Hamelin’s other titles were from the men’s 500 and 5,000 relay at the 2010 Vancouver Games.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
