Host China wins its first gold of the Beijing 2022 Games in Speed Skating

Winter Olympics 2022: China won its first medal at home Olympics by taking gold in the first-ever short track speed skating mixed team relay.

• Another triumph for Wu Dajing, who won China's only gold at the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang.

• Italy took the silver medal after nearly pipping the hosts to the line,

• Hungary were awarded the bronze, in a thrilling event making its debut at the Winter Olympics.

China won their first gold medal of their home Winter Olympics when they claimed the short track speed skating mixed team relay title in dramatic fashion on Saturday.


Italy were second and Hungary finished third.



Ren Ziwei, Wu Dajing, Fan Kexin and Qu Chunyu clocked two minutes 37.348 seconds over 2,000 metres in the final to kick off the host country's Games in style at the Capital Indoor Stadium.

The sport is notorious for crashes and this final was not without controversy.




Wu won China's only gold medal at the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang. They won five titles at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver and three in Sochi in 2014.

China finished their semi-final in third place behind Hungary and the United States, which would have barred them from entering the final, but the race came under review for possible infringements.


After five minutes, the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) ended up being disqualified for obstruction along with the U.S. who were penalized for blocking.

• The final was also a nail biter, with the race coming under review again after the hosts had beaten Italy by 0.016 second.

• The only announcement that came after the review, however, was a penalty for fourth-placed Canada, and the few hundred spectators raised the volume at an otherwise quiet stadium.

• Short track speed skating event featured teams of four skaters - two men and two women - switching in and out over 18 laps, producing a cracking spectacle of sport.

Short track speed skating returns to the agenda on Monday, which sees with the women’s 500m and men’s 1000m quarter-finals and semi-finals take place.



________________

Via Reuters - Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Ed Osmond