Host Korea grabs 4 medals at Short Track World Tour in Seoul

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Host Korea grabs 4 medals at Short Track World Tour in Seoul

Kim Gil-li, front, competes during the women's 3000-meter relay quarterfinal at the International Skating Union Short Track World Tour Mokdong Ice Rink in western Seoul on Friday. [NEWS1]

Kim Gil-li, front, competes during the women's 3000-meter relay quarterfinal at the International Skating Union Short Track World Tour Mokdong Ice Rink in western Seoul on Friday. [NEWS1]

 
Korea captured four medals at the International Skating Union (ISU) Short Track World Tour in Seoul on Saturday.
  

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In the women's 1,000 meters at Mokdong Ice Rink in western Seoul, Kim Gil-li captured the gold medal and her teammate Choi Min-jeong took the bronze medal, sandwiching Danae Blais of Canada.
  
Both Kim and Choi started the nine-lap final in the back of the pack. Kim then jumped out to second place behind Blais with one lap to go before zipping past the Canadian over the final corner to cross the finish line first in 1:30.884. 
 
Choi Min-jeong, front, competes during the women's 1500-meter quarterfinal at International Skating Union Short Track World Tour at Mokdong Ice Rink in western Seoul on Friday. [NEWS1]

Choi Min-jeong, front, competes during the women's 1500-meter quarterfinal at International Skating Union Short Track World Tour at Mokdong Ice Rink in western Seoul on Friday. [NEWS1]

 
Blais came home in 1:31.010, and Choi checked in at 1:31.053.
  
This was Kim's second individual gold medal of this World Tour season and her fifth medal overall.
  
She is the reigning winner of the Crystal Globe, awarded to the points leader at the end of each season. Skaters receive 100 points for each individual race victory, 80 points for a runner-up finish and 70 points for a third-place performance, and so forth.
  
With Saturday's gold, Kim jumped from fourth to second on the points standings with 588, and Choi remained in third place with 586 points. Xandra Velzeboer of the Netherlands is the leader with 700 points.
  
Later in the day, Kim and Choi teamed up with Shim Suk-hee and Noh Do-hee for the bronze medal in the women's 3000-meter relay, behind Canada and Italy.
  
Canada led almost wire-to-wire for its third straight World Tour gold medal. Korea has yet to win a gold in the women's 3000-meter relay, with two silver and one bronze.
  
Also on Saturday, Park Ji-won grabbed silver in the men's 1,500 meters in 2:14.738, behind William Dandjinou of Canada, who finished at 2:14.313. Jens van't Wout of the Netherlands finished third in 2:14.878.
  
Steven Dubois of Canada crossed the finish line just ahead of Park in second place, but was later penalized for an illegal lane change.
  
This was Park's third individual medal this season, following a silver in the 1,500 meters at the first World Tour stop in Montreal in October and a gold in the 1,500 meters last weekend in Beijing.
  
Park, the two-time defending Crystal Globe winner, improved to 526 points for this season, good for second place. Dandjinou continues to lead the way, now with 784 points.
  
The World Tour's Seoul leg will conclude Sunday with the finals in the mixed team 2000-meter relay, the women's 500 meters and 1,500 meters and the men's 1000 and 5000-meter relay.
  
The tour will resume in February in the Dutch city of Tilburg, and Milan in Italy will host the sixth and final leg later in February.

Yonhap
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