On December 17, Beijing time, the fourth stop of the Short Track Speed Skating World Cup in Seoul came to an end. In the individual finals on the last day of competition. Liu Shaoang staged a shocking reversal in the men's 500m, winning gold before the finish line. Beijing teenager Wang Ye won the bronze medal in the women's 500m again in Seoul after Beijing.
In the men's 500m final, Liu Shaolin and Liu Shaoang started in lane four and lane five respectively, and they did not have an advantage at the start. Kazakhstan's Nikisha was in the lead. Halfway through the race, South Korea's Seo Yi-la took advantage of the corner to finish overtaking from the inside lane and rose to first place. There was still a lap left in the game, and the Polish player Newinski fouled Liu Shaolin and brought down Liu Shaolin, which also affected Liu Shaoang who was in the last place, but fortunately, Liu Shaoang quickly adjusted and accelerated the rhythm, gradually caught up with Nikisha, and completed the overtaking from the outside road, and Liu Shaoang chased with all his strength in the last corner, and was still half a body behind Xu Yila after coming out of the corner, and Liu Shaoang, who struggled to cross the line before the finish line, almost hit the line at the same time as Xu Yila. Xu Yila, who had been in the lead in the second half of the race, thought that the championship was in hand and made a victory gesture to celebrate in advance, but the big screen showed that Liu Shaoang was ahead of Xu Yila and hit the line first.
In the end, Liu Shaoang won the gold medal with a time of 41.196 seconds, and the host South Korea's Xu Yila won the silver medal with a disadvantage of 41.205 seconds, 0.009 seconds behind Liu Shaoang, and the bronze medal belonged to Kazakhstan's Nikisha. This is also Liu Shaoang's second gold medal in a single event after the gold medal in the 500m in the first stop in Montreal and the gold medal in the men's 1000m in the third stop in Beijing. After the game, Liu Shaoang said that this championship was an accident, and he originally wanted to cooperate with Liu Shaolin, but he didn't expect him to fall unexpectedly.
The drama of the men's 500m began in the semi-finals, where Liu Shaoang and Liu Shaolin were in the same group as South Korea's Hwang Dae-heon and Lee Jung-min and Italy's Sigail. In the race, South Korea's Huang Daxian had physical contact with Liu Shaolin and Liu Shaoang many times in the starting stage, Liu Shaolin and Liu Shaoang fell down one after another, and the race started 5 times before proceeding smoothly. In this regard, Liu Shaolin said that everyone wants to occupy a good position at the start. Liu Shaoang said that the staffing of the semi-finals can already be called the finals, because everyone is at a high level.
The drama was also seen in the women's 500m final, when the Dutch duo Sandra Beerseb and Selma Bautsma crossed the line at the same time, and both tied for the title in 43.128 seconds. This is not common in short track speed skating competitions. Beijing teenager Wang Ye won the bronze medal with a time of 43.411 seconds, and once again reached the podium in the women's 500m event after the Beijing station. Fan Kexin and Wang Xinran, who also advanced to the final of Group A, ranked fourth and fifth respectively. Image source: Xinhua News Agency