Short track speed skater Park Ji-won wins three golds at Almaty World Cup

Park Ji-won, left, competes against Hong Kyung-hwan in the 1500-meter finals of the national team qualification race held on May 4 at Taereung International Skating Rink in central Seoul. [NEWS1]

Park Ji-won won three gold medals at the ISU World Cup event in Almaty, Kazahstan over the weekend, bringing him to a total of eight gold medals so far in the 2022-23 season.

On Sunday, Park won the men’s 1000-meter gold medal with a time of 1:24.573. He earlier won the men’s 1500-meter gold and the 2000-meter mixed relay on Saturday.

His 1000-meter time of 1:24.573 was 0.202 seconds faster than silver medalist Steven Dubois of Canada. Roberts Kruzbergs of Latvia took bronze.

While Park won the 1500-meter gold medal with a time of 2:15.375 on Saturday, countryman Hong Kyung-hwan finished 0.384 seconds behind to win the bronze medal. Stijn Desmet of Belgium won silver.

For the 2000-meter mixed gold medal, Park teamed up with Kim Gil-li, Lim Yong-jin and Shim Suk-hee to finish 0.312 seconds ahead of Belgium.

This is the second time that Park has won three gold medals at a single World Cup. In October in Montreal, Canada, Park won the men’s 1,500 meters, the 5000-meter men’s relay and the mixed 2000-meter relay.

After earning a spot on the national team for the first time in four years, Park has racked up a total of eight gold medals this season, three of them won in the men's 1,500 meters and two in the men's 1,000 meters. The remaining three are relay medals.

Park and Hong are not the only Koreans to reach the podium in Almaty. Jang Sung-woo also won the men’s 500-meter silver medal.

Shim won two medals, winning the women’s 1500-meter bronze medal and going on to win the women’s 3000-meter relay alongside Kim, Lee So-youn and Seo Whi-min.

The national team jetted back home on Monday and will continue training before they compete at the next World Cup scheduled to be held next February in Dresden, Germany.

Korea will host the World Short Track Speed Skating Championships in Seoul from March 10 to March 12.

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