Hwang Dae-heon wins Korea's first gold medal in Beijing

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Hwang Dae-heon wins Korea's first gold medal in Beijing

Published: 09 Feb. 2022, 23:02

Hwang Dae-heon celebrates after winning the men's 1,500-meter short track final on Wednesday at Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing. [YONHAP]

Hwang Dae-heon leads the men's 1,500-meter short track final on Wednesday. [YONHAP]

Hwang Dae-heon won Korea’s first gold medal in the men’s 1,500-meter short track race on Wednesday.

Hwang won his first-ever Olympic gold medal at his second Games with a time of 2:09.219. Hwang was in fourth position early in the race, but, with nine laps remaining, Hwang took first and kept that lead until the very end.

Hwang entered the Games as one of the top men's short track skaters, having won four gold medals at the Speed Skating World Cups leading up to the Olympics. Hwang won the 500-meter silver medal at the 2018 Winter Games.

Wednesday's medal comes as a potent consolation prize for Hwang, who failed to reach the final in both the mixed team quarterfinals and the 1,000-meter semifinals.

In the 1,000-meter semifinals on Monday, Hwang crossed the finish line first in his heat but was disqualified for making an illegal late passing that caused contact, taking the world record holder out of the event.

Park Jang-hyuk, left and Lee June-seo congratulate Hwang Dae-heon he won the men's 1500-meter short track gold medal on Wednesday at Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing. [JOONGANG ILBO]

Steven Dubois of Canada took the silver medal and Semen Elistratov of Russia took the bronze medal.

BY YUN SO-HYANG [yun.sohyang@joongang.co.kr]