Korea wins silver and bronze in men's mass start

Chung Jae-won, left, and Lee Seung-hoon celebrate after medaling in the men's mass start at the 2022 Beijing Olympics on Saturday. [YONHAP]

The Korean men's speed skating team ended the 2022 Beijing Olympics with a bang on Saturday, winning both the silver and bronze medals in the men's mass start at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing.

Chung Jae-won walked away from the final men's event of the Games with a silver medal, finishing the 16-lap race 0.07 seconds behind Bart Swings of Belgium. PyeongChang Olympics mass start gold medalist Lee Seung-hoon followed in third place, just 0.02 seconds behind Chung and only 0.001 seconds ahead of Joey Mantia of the United States.

Chung, who finished the race with a time of 7 minutes and 47.18 seconds, spent the majority of the long-distance race in fifth place, only surging up to podium position in the final lap of the race.

After spending the majority of the race in the middle of the pack, Lee pushed his way up to second place with two laps left to go, but then slipped back in the final lap. He finished the race with a time of 7 minutes and 47.20 seconds.

With the bronze medal, Lee has now medaled at four consecutive Olympics. Lee won the 10,000-meter gold medal and the 5,000-meter silver medal at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, the men's team pursuit silver medal at the 2014 Sochi Olympics and the men's mass start gold and team pursuit silver medals at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics.

Chung was also part of that 2018 silver medal winning team.

The Korean men's speed skating team finish the 2022 Beijing Olympics with four medals: Two silver and two bronze. As well as Chung and Lee, Cha Min-kyu won silver in the men's 500 meters and Kim Min-seok took bronze in the 1,500 meters.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]