Search begins for new skating stars
By Lei Lei (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-02-27 05:33

China's Yang, 29, who returned to join the national team after a one- year absence to study abroad, only managed a bronze in the women's 1,000m, which saw South Korean Choi Eun-kyung disqualified in the final for impeding.

China's women's team also had to accept a medal blank in the relay race after being disqualified for impeding.

The situation is even worse on the men's side. Led by veteran Li Jiajun, the four-time Olympic medallist, the men's team achieved only one bronze, by the 30-year-old Li, and finished only fifth in the relay race.

Koreans dominate

Chinese skaters, who used to dominate the sport from 1997 to 2000 thanks to the six-time world champion Yang, have seen themselves overtaken by the South Koreans. Ahn Hyun-soo and Jin Sun-yu of South Korea became the triple gold medallists among men and women skaters respectively.

"Ahn and Jin are two genius skaters on the short-track," Tong commented. "Both of them have mastered advanced techniques during the races. They are able to speed up at every part of the racing course, depending on their advanced skating skills rather than only physical strength."

Tong also pointed out that the quickly rising South Koreans came from a wide pool of talent.

"In South Korea, short-track speed skating is the popular sport, just like the table tennis in China," Tong said. "The level of its young skaters is much higher than the youth in China, where the sport is only practiced in two provinces with about 300 registered skaters."

The gap began to appear two years ago.

At the 2004 Beijing World Junior Championships, the home skaters suffered almost a total failure.

With South Korea maintaining its dominance by winning nine of the 10 titles up for grabs, China managed only a silver medal and a bronze and failed to reach the finals in six individual events.