South Korea won two gold medals in short track speed skating at the Asian Winter Games on Monday, an early indication the hosts of the 2018 Winter Olympics could be regaining their dominance of the sport. Choi Min-jeong won the women's 1,500 meters and Park Se-yeong took top honors in the men's 1,500. Choi clocked a winning time of 2 minutes, 21.46 seconds to edge compatriot Shim Suk-hee by .153 seconds. Guo Yihan of China was third in 2:30.017. "I wasn't that focused on us coming first and second and more concerned about the skaters from the other countries," said seven-time world champion Choi. "But it was great that we could get this result together." Park won the men's event with a time of 2:34.056 while China's Wu Dajing was second in 2:34.256. Lee Jung-su, also of South Korea, was third in 2:34.356. South Korea has been dominant in short track speed skating since it was introduced at the Albertville Olympics in 1992 but managed only two gold medals at the Sochi Games in 2014. South Korea also won a gold medal in speed skating. Lee Seung-hoon won the men's 5,000 meters with a time of 6:24.32, 5.35 seconds ahead of Ryosuke Tsuchiya of Japan. Seitaro Ichinohe of Japan was third in 6:31.84. Nao Kodaira won gold in women's 1,000 meters. The Japanese skater, who has won all six World Cup events this season in the 500, recorded a new Asian record of 1 minute, 15.19 seconds, 0.12 seconds ahead of compatriot Miho Takagi. China's Zhang Hong won the bronze in 1:15.75. Kodaira won the silver medal in the women's 1,000 meters the world single distances speed skating championships last week, adding to her first world gold medal in the 500. Gao Tingyu of China won the men's 500, clocking a time of 34.69, 0.10 seconds ahead of Tsubasa Hasegawa of Japan. Cha Min Kyu of South Korea was third in 34.94. Zang Ruxing of China won gold in the snowboarding women's slalom while Lee Sang-ho kicked off South Korea's gold medal rush on the opening day of competition by winning the men's slalom. Desert to ice: Qatar takes on curling at Winter Games For Qatar women's curling team, just about everything is a new experience. Curling, a sport that has links with medieval Scotland and is more suited to the Canadian prairies, has taken a small foothold in the Middle East. Just how new are Qatar's players to curling? Some of them in Japan for the Asian Winter Games in Sapporo had never experienced snow before. The fledgling curlers are doing their best to get up to speed but it's a huge challenge when you live in a desert. The Qatari women can train only one day a week on ice that is not up to international standards. It's a tough road ahead. Qatar lost 17-1 to Japan on Saturday in a preliminary round game at Sapporo Curling Stadium. "For now, we are training more to get experience and know more about the game and its strategies," said skip Maryam Binali, who has been throwing stones for just 11 months. "We learned a lot from the Japanese team today because they are more experienced but hopefully we will do well." University student Binali said she likes the sense of teamwork. Players in Qatar train on a public rink shared by figure skaters and ice hockey players. There are only two ice rinks in Doha so ice time comes at a premium. Soccer is the most popular sport in Qatar but the country is looking to broaden its sporting horizons - even to winter sports. The Qatari women's team is coached by Hungarian Lajos Belleli, who is a seven-time Hungarian champion. "(Curling) is totally new and strange, a winter sport in one of the hottest countries in the world," Belleli said. "Curling is totally new there so I have to convince people that this will be good for them, which is not easy but a nice challenge." So far there are just seven female players — and 15 male curlers — in Qatar, which is the only country in the Middle East that has joined the World Curling Federation. Qatar could take inspiration from Japan, a country that has rapidly developed in the sport. Japan's women's team is ranked sixth and won the silver medal in the 2016 world championships. "We can play the sport anywhere and want to make it a truly global sport," said Kate Caithness, president of the World Curling Federation. — AP
