Wu Dajing led the team to the short track speed skating men's 5000m relay final

(Beijing Winter Olympics) Wu Dajing led the team to a thrilling promotion to the short track speed skating men's 5000m relay final

Beijing, 11 Feb (China News Service) -- In the semi-finals of the men's 5,000-meter relay of short track speed skating at the Beijing Winter Olympics held on the evening of 11 February, the Chinese team led by Wu Dajing advanced to a thrilling advance.

On February 11, the semi-finals of the men's 5,000-meter relay short track speed skating at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics were held at the Capital Gymnasium. Pictured is Chinese player Wu Dajing (front third from left) at the match. Photo by Mao Jianjun, reporter of China News Service

That night, the Chinese team composed of Wu Dajing, Ren Ziwei, Sun Long and Li Wenlong competed with the Canadian team, the Italian team and the Japanese team. The Chinese team was in the leading position several times after the departure, but after halfway through the race, there was an accident, and the youngster Li Wenlong fell off the track.

Despite the tenacious pursuit of the team members, the Chinese team was still the last in the group to cross the finish line. However, the referee played back through the video and believed that Li Wenlong had obvious contact with the Canadian player's ice knife and was affected by the other party before falling off the track, so he decided that the Chinese team directly advanced to the Group A final.

Li Wenlong explained after the game that the "kick knife" caused the fall was purely accidental, and he and the Canadian team players were not at fault, so the other party was not punished. The Chinese team, which was the victim of the accident, was sentenced to enter the Final of Group A, which met the rules of the competition.

Ren Ziwei also said that during the relay competition, the players are prone to inadvertent collisions, and it is normal to be judged to advance to the final in this case. "In the final, every team is likely to win gold, I hope we will take the initiative and reduce mistakes." He said.

In the evening before the relay race, the Beijing Winter Olympics short track speed skating men's 500m preliminary round was divided into 8 groups. Holding the short track speed skating men's 500m Olympic record and world record, Wu Dajing, who won the championship in Pyeongchang, performed well with a time of 40.230 seconds.

Wu Dajing advanced to the quarter-finals of the project with the first place in this group. Ren Ziwei and Sun Long also stood out from their respective groups. According to the schedule, the men's 500m quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals will be held on the 13th. The gold, silver and bronze medal of the men's 5,000-meter relay will be revealed on the 16th.

On the evening of the 11th, the "peak showdown" of the women's 1000 meters was also held. In the final, Dutch star Suzanne Shultin narrowly defeated South Korea's Choi Min Jing to win the gold medal. It is worth mentioning that Schultin set a new world record for the project on the same day, with a time of 1:26.514.

The three female players of the Chinese team, Qu Chunyu, Han Yutong and Zhang Chutong, all stopped in the women's 1000m quarterfinals. "Tonight's game was fought with all my might, and the result was not satisfactory, so just keep working hard." Zhang Chutong said after the game that she wanted to look forward, she said: "Believe in us, we will be better!" (End)

Source: China News Network