Korea takes silver in men's 5,000-meter relay

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Korea takes silver in men's 5,000-meter relay

Published: 16 Feb. 2022, 23:50 Updated: 17 Feb. 2022, 10:25

From left to right, Hwang Dae-heon, Lee June-seo, Kwak Yoon-gy, Kim Dong-wook, and Park Jang-hyuk celebrate after their second-place finish in the men's 5,000-meter relay at Capital Indoor Stadium at the 2022 Winter Olympics on Wednesday. [XINHUA/YONHAP]

Korea won the men's 5,000-meter relay silver medal at the Capital Indoor Stadium on Wednesday after Park Jang-hyuk, Kwak Yoon-gy, Lee June-seo and Hwang Dae-heon crossed the finish line with a time of 6:41.679.

This is Korea's second silver medal in a short track relay race in Beijing, after the women's team also took silver on Sunday. It is also Korea's first podium finish in the men's relay in 12 years — Korea's last medal in the event was also silver, at the 2010 Vancouver Games.

Korea is a short track powerhouse, but considering Team Korea's difficult path to the relay finals, the silver medal comes as something of a consolation prize. Not only did Park suffer an injury in his hand from a crash during the men's 1,000-meter semifinal that resulted in 11 stitches, but Olympic record and world record holder Hwang failed to reach the final in the mixed team, 1,000 meters and 500 meters.

Kwak Yoon-gy, right, crosses the finish line second after Steven Dubois of team Canada in the men's 5,000-meter relay final at Capital Indoor Stadium on Wednesday. [AP/YONHAP]

Park hit the ice first, taking the lead position and passing it on to Kwak then to Lee and Hwang. Korea kept the lead until just 18 laps remained, when Canada pulled into first and Korea took second place with China following close behind. With 11 laps remaining, China fell, taking them out of the medal competition.

With three laps left, Park started a sprint, trying to close the gap with Canada. Three-time Olympian Kwak took over to finish the race, continuing to push closer but unable to catch up with Canada, crossing the finish line a split second behind the winning team. Italy finished almost two seconds behind Korea to win the bronze medal.

Kwak Yoon-gy, center, celebrates during the victory ceremony after Korea's second place finish in the men's 5,000-meter relay final at Capital Indoor Stadium at the 2022 Winter Olympics on Wednesday. [AP/YONHAP]

The second-place finish left the Korean team with mixed feelings, both happy to medal but also annoyed that they hadn't done better.

"Now the men's short track events are all over with the team relay," said Lee. "I feel that I didn't do a good job of handing over a surmountable race to our last racer Kwak. I want to thank fans for all the support and promise to come back as a better skater."

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