Winter Olympics - China win first gold in inaugural short track speed skating mixed team relay at Beijing 2022
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Published 05/02/2022 at 14:28 GMT
It was 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, while Hungary were awarded the bronze, in what was a thrilling conclusion to an event making its debut at the Winter Olympics. The sport is notorious for crashes and this final was not without controversy.
China celebrate winning gold at the short track speed skating
Image credit: Getty Images
China won their first medal at their home Olympics by taking gold in the first-ever short track speed skating mixed team relay event, following a gripping finale at the Capital Indoor Stadium.
Ren Ziwei, Wu Dajing, Fan Kexin and Qu Chunyu will go down in Chinese folklore for the historic victory, as they registered a time of 2:37.348 over 2,000m in the final.
It was another triumph for Wu, who won China's only gold medal at the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang.
Italy took the silver medal after nearly pipping the hosts to the line, while Hungary were awarded the bronze, in what was a thrilling conclusion to an event making its debut at the Winter Olympics.
This event featured teams of four skaters - two men and two women - switching in and out over 18 laps, producing a cracking spectacle of sport.
The sport is notorious for crashes and this final was not without controversy, after Canada were penalised for a push from behind causing contact.
Hopes were high among a Canada team that secured their place in the final by topping a semi-final that included Italy, Kazakhstan and the Netherlands.
Meanwhile, the second semi-final saw penalties dished out to the Russian Olympic Committee and United States, seeing their medal hopes dashed in the process.
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.
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