(LEAD) (Olympics) S Korea-speed skating silver

▲ Cha Min-kyu of South Korea competes in the men's 500m speed skating race at the Beijing Winter Olympics at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing on Feb. 12, 2022. (Yonhap)

▲ Cha Min-kyu of South Korea celebrates his silver medal in the men's 500m speed skating race at the Beijing Winter Olympics at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing on Feb. 12, 2022. (Yonhap)

(LEAD) (Olympics) S Korea-speed skating silver

(LEAD) (Olympics) Speed skater Cha Min-kyu wins silver medal in men's 500m

(ATTN: ADDS details from para 6, photo)

By Yoo Jee-ho

BEIJING, Feb. 12 (Yonhap) -- Cha Min-kyu captured silver in the men's 500m speed skating race at Beijing 2022 on Saturday, stunning the skating world once again with his second straight Olympic medal.

Cha posted the time of 34.39 seconds at the National Speed Skating Oval, finishing behind Gao Tingyu of China, who set a new Olympic record with 34.32 seconds. Wataru Morishige of Japan took the bronze medal in 34.49 seconds.

Cha, 28, is now the first South Korean man to win back-to-back medals in the 500m. Four years ago at PyeongChang 2018, Cha finished only 0.01 second behind Haavard Holmefjord Lorentzen of Norway for a shocking silver medal.

This is South Korea's second speed skating medal in Beijing, after Kim Min-seok delivered bronze in the men's 1,500m on Tuesday.

South Korea has produced a medalist in the men's 500m at four of the past five Olympics.

There were 30 skaters in Saturday's race, divided into 15 pairs. Cha was in the 10th pair with Marek Kania of Poland, and Cha covered the first 100m in 9.64 seconds, behind only Gao, who started out in 9.42 seconds in the seventh pair.

But over the final 400m, no one was faster than Cha, who came home in 24.75 seconds. The South Korean seemed to pick up speed as he came barreling down the line.

There were still 10 skaters left when Cha was finished. A fellow South Korean, Kim Jun-ho, took third place in the 11th pair before quickly dropping out of medal contention. But Cha's time stood as the second best until the end.

The final pair featured two of the best skaters from the most recent International Skating Union (ISU) World Cup season: No. 1 Laurent Dubreuil of Canada and No. 3 Tatsuya Shinhama of Japan.

After a false start, Shinhama had a horrible start with 10.11 seconds, which quickly took him out of the picture. Dubreuil, though, hit the 100m mark in 9.63 seconds, one-hundredth of a second faster than Cha. But the Canadian lost a bit of steam later on and finished fourth overall.

Cha ranked only 11th in the ISU World Cup standings.


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