Hwang Dae-heon sets new Olympic record in 1000 meters

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Hwang Dae-heon sets new Olympic record in 1000 meters

Published: 05 Feb. 2022, 22:54 Updated: 09 Feb. 2022, 22:32

Hwang Dae-heon competes during the 2022 Beijing Olympics men's 1000-meter short track speed skating heat at the Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing on Saturday. [XINHUA/YONHAP]

Choi Min-jeong races in the 2022 Beijing Olympics women's 500-meter short track speed skating heat at the Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing on Saturday. [AP/YONHAP]

Short track speed skater Hwang Dae-heon set a new Olympic record on Saturday in the men's 1000-meter heats with a record of 1:23.042, advancing to the quarterfinals alongside countrymen Lee June-seo and Park Jang-hyuk.

Hwang now holds both the world record, at 1:20.875 set in November, 2016, and the Olympic record set on Saturday.

Hwang competed in group five, taking the lead position from the start. Despite other racers trying to find a way past Hwang, he out skated all three to finish comfortably in first place. The top two competitors from each group advance to the quarterfinals.

Park Jang-hyuk also earned his spot in the quarterfinals, topping the first group with a time of 1:24.08. In group four, Lee June-seo finished first with a time of 1:24.698 after a big comeback. Lee June-seo had started out the race in last place but with four laps remaining, he took second then stepped up to first in the last lap.

In the women’s 500-meter, Choi Min-jeong will advance to the quarterfinals after finishing on top of group one with a time of 42.853, while Lee Yu-bin finished last in her group, missing out on a chance to advance to the quarterfinals.

On Saturday, Suzanne Schulting of the Netherlands skated the 500 meters with a time of 42.379 breaking Choi’s previous 500-meter Olympic world record of 42.422 that stood from Feb. 13, 2018.

Lee Yu-bin followed in group two and started out the race in fourth and was unable to catch up with the three other racers.

Despite missing out on the 500-meter race, Lee Yu-bin will still compete in the women’s 1000-meter and 1500-meter races. Both are much stronger events for Lee — she is the world No. 1 in the women's 1,500 meters and the world No. 12 in the 1,000 meters.

BY YUN SO-HYANG [[email protected]]