Olympic speed skating champ Lee Sang-hwa wins World Cup race on home ice

SEOUL, Nov. 22 (Yonhap) -- South Korean Olympic champion Lee Sang-hwa finished first in the second 500-meter race at the International Skating Union (ISU) Speed Skating World Cup in Seoul on Saturday, redeeming herself a day after her winning streak was snapped on home ice.

Lee, the two-time Olympic gold medalist and world record holder, finished first among 21 skaters with a time of 37.99 seconds at Taeneung International Rink. Nao Kodaira of Japan, who defeated Lee for first place in the opening 500ｍ race on Friday, ended in second place on Saturday in 38.51 seconds.

The Seoul competition is the second of seven World Cup competitions this season.

Lee had won both of the 500ｍ races in the season's first World Cup held in Japan last week. Then on Friday, the 25-year-old suffered her first loss at a World Cup since March 2013, clocking at 38.18 seconds, 0.13 second slower than Kodaira.

Lee won seven World Cup titles in the 500ｍ last season and grabbed her second straight Olympic gold in the distance in Sochi, Russia, in February.

She had earlier blamed her mediocre start and a slight mistake at the first corner. Since the end of the Olympics, Lee had also been bothered by a nagging left knee injury. She'd once considered going under the knife to have the knee drained but opted to skate this season while getting the knee treated along the way.

Also in the women's 500ｍ on Saturday, Park Seung-hi, a former South Korean short track star who switched to speed skating in August, finished in 19th place at 39.35 seconds.

Park made a major career change this summer, just six months after winning two gold medals and one bronze medal in short track at the Sochi Winter Olympics.

In last week's World Cup in Japan, Park won the second 500ｍ race in Division B with a personal best time of 39.05, earning the promotion to Division A for this week. On Friday, she ended in 11th place at 39.13 seconds.

jeeho@yna.co.kr
(END)