Lee defends long-track gold

Lee Seung-hoon wins Korea’s first gold medal in long-track speed skating in men’s 5000 meters on Monday. [YONHAP]

Speed skater Lee Seung-hoon won the gold medal in the men’s 5,000 meters at the Asian Winter Games in Japan on Monday.

Lee defended his Winter Asiad title with the Asian record time of 6:24.32 at Obihiro Forest Speed Skating Oval in Obihiro, some 200 kilometers east of Sapporo.

Speed skating is the only event taking place outside the main host city at these Asian Games.

This was Korea’s first speed skating gold medal at the ongoing Winter Asiad.

Ryosuke Tsuchiya of Japan won the silver in 6:29.67, followed by another Japanese, Seitaro Ichinohe, in third.

Lee skated in the inner lane in the fourth group alongside Ichinohe. After a decent early stretch, Lee picked up his pace after the 1,000m mark, and his final two lap times were all in the 29-second range.

Lee is competing at the Winter Asiad just 10 days after getting eight stitches on his right calf. He cut himself with his own left skate in a fall during the team pursuit competition at the world championships in Korea. He was initially thought to be unfit to take part in the Asian Games but soon declared himself ready to compete in multiple races here.

Lee also won the 5,000m gold medal at the 2011 Asian Winter Games and at the 2010 Winter Olympics.