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Lee Yu-bin, Park Jang-hyuk medal in third round of short track world cup

Published: 21 Nov. 2021, 17:05

Lee Yu-bin, left, celebrates with gold medal winner Suzanne Schulting of Netherlands, center, and third placed Courtney Sarault of Canada on the podium after the women's 1500m semifinal race of the ISU Short Track Speed Skating World Cup in Debrecen, Hungary on Saturday. [AP/YONHAP]

Lee Yu-bin, center, crosses the finish line second at the women's 1500m final at the ISU World Cup Short Track Speed Skating series in Debrecen, Hungary on Saturday, winning the silver medal. [XINHUA/YONHAP]

Lee Yu-bin took silver in the women’s 1500-meter race while Park Jang-hyuk took bronze in the men's 1500-meter race at third round of the 2021–22 ISU Short Track Speed Skating World Cup in Debrecen, Hungary on Saturday.

Lee crossed the finish line with a time of 2:23.101, while countrywoman Choi Min-jeong was penalized for impeding in the same race. Suzanne Schulting of the Netherlands took first place with a time of 2:23.009, a fraction of a second ahead of Lee.

This is Lee’s third World Cup medal this season after winning the 1500-meter gold medal in the first round held in Bejing, then the team silver medal in the women's 3,000-meter relay in the second round held in Nagoya, Japan alongside Kim A-lang, Seo Whi-min and Park Ji-yun.

The silver medal on Saturday comes as redemption for Lee as she was penalized last time around in the women’s 1500-meter final in Nagoya, Japan. Now Lee tops the World Cup points in the 1500-meter women’s discipline, having earned 10,000 points in the first round, 2, 097 in the second and 8,000 points in Hungary as of press time.

Choi Min-jeong, far left, and Lee Yu-bin, center, compete during the women's 1500m final at the ISU World Cup Short Track Speed Skating series in Debrecen, Hungary on Saturday. [XINHUA/YONHAP]

But Choi, whose record of 2:14.354 in the women’s 1500-meter set on Nov. 12, 2016 stands until now, is still struggling to find her form after suffering an injury in Beijing and missing out the second round of the World Cup.

Lee wasn’t the only Korean to medal in Hungary. Park Jang-hyuk won the men’s 1500-meter bronze medal with a record of 2:13.125, marking his first-ever World Cup medal.

Park Jang-hyuk, right, celebrates with gold medal winner Ren Ziwei of China, center, and second placed Pascal Dion of Canada on the podium after the men's 1500m final race of the ISU Short Track Speed Skating World Cup in Debrecen, Hungary on Saturday. [AP/YONHAP]

The four rounds of the World Cup will serve as qualifying events for the 2022 Beijing Winter Games. The fourth round will take place in Dordrecht, in the Netherlands from Nov. 25 to 28.

BY YUN SO-HYANG [[email protected]]