Source: Xinhua

02-20-2009 08:32

HARBIN, Northeast China, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- South Korea made a flying start at the Harbin Winter Universiade, winning three of the four gold medals on offer in the first-day finals, while host China also savored its first gold from the women's short track rink.

To justify their prowess in Asia as well as in the world, the Korean speed skaters won both the men's and women's 500m events and made a clean sweep on the short track in the men's 1,500m.

Lee Sang Hwa held off a strong challenge from home favorite Yu Jing to take the Universiade's first gold medal in the women's 500mspeed skating with a games record.

The teenage sensation twice smashed her own Universiade record of 38.64 set in Turin in 2007, clocking 38.20 in the first race and38.16 in the second.

"It's a sweet surprise," said Lee, who turns 20 years old next week. "To win the Universiade's first gold is something beyond my expectation since I just wanted to race against the previous record."

"I'm so glad that I performed better than what I had imagined," she said.

And one hour later, her compatriot Lee Kang Seok won the second title for South Korea, narrowly beating Chinese Yu Fengtong by 0.05seconds.