(Winter Olympics) Lee Sang-hwa wins women`s 500 meter speed skating gold

VANCOUVER, Feb. 16 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's Lee Sang-hwa won gold in the women's
500-meter speed skating event at the Vancouver Winter Olympics on Tuesday,
becoming the first South Korean female skater to win a speed skating event at the
Olympics.
South Korea won both 500m events for men and women in speed skating in this
Olympics.
Lee, who turns 21 on next Thursday, took the lead after the first run with 38.249
seconds in the event held at Richmond Olympic Oval and timed 37.850 seconds in
the second race to top the list with 76.09 seconds in total in the race held at
Richmond Olympic Oval.
Germany's Jenny Wolf finished second by five hundredths of a second with 76.14
and China's Wang Beixing stood third with 76.63 seconds.
Lee's triumph marked the first time a South Korean woman has won any medal in the
Olympic speed skating events since South Korea first participated in the winter
Olympics in St. Moritz in 1948. Only short track speed skaters have brought home
gold medals in previous Olympics.
Her victory added to the country's gold medal haul started by her compatriot Mo
Tae-bum.
Mo won the men's 500m speed skating event on Monday after Lee Seung-hoon grabbed
silver in the men's 5,000m event on Saturday, the first Asian medal in a long
distance race.
brk@yna.co.kr
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