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With two gold medals, short tracker Park Ji-won closes in on World Cup overall title

By Yonhap

Published : Feb. 6, 2023 - 10:51

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Park Ji-won of South Korea celebrates his victory in the men's 1,500 meters at the International Skating Union World Cup race at Joynext Arena in Dresden, Germany, on Sunday. (Captured image from Park's official Instagram) Park Ji-won of South Korea celebrates his victory in the men's 1,500 meters at the International Skating Union World Cup race at Joynext Arena in Dresden, Germany, on Sunday. (Captured image from Park's official Instagram)

South Korean short track speed skater Park Ji-won has strengthened his grip on the World Cup overall lead with two more gold medals in Germany over the weekend.

Park won the men's 1,500 meters in the fifth stop of the International Skating Union World Cup Short Track Speed Skating in Dresden, Germany, on Sunday (local time).

The 26-year-old had won the 1,000m gold medal on Saturday.

With the two latest victories, Park improved to 868 points in the World Cup overall standings for the season, good for a 234-point lead over his teammate, Hong Kyung-hwan, with one World Cup event remaining in the Netherlands this week.

Park also captured the World Cup overall title for the 2019-2020 season.

In the women's competition, Kim Gil-li grabbed the 1,500m gold medal on Sunday. The 18-year-old is the top South Korean so far with 614 points in the overall standings, third behind Suzanne Schulting of the Netherlands (912) and Courtney Sarault of Canada (616).

Also on Sunday for South Korea, Shim Suk-hee won bronze in the women's 1,500m and Choi Min-jeong did the same in the women's 500m.

Lin Xiaojun of China, former South Korean star born Lim Hyo-jun, earned his first individual World Cup title for his adopted country in the men's 500m on Sunday.

Under his birth name, the 26-year-old won a gold medal and a bronze medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics. He acquired a Chinese passport in June 2020, while going through a protracted legal battle over sexual harassment charges from the previous year. He was acquitted in 2021. (Yonhap)