S. Korea wins silver in men's team pursuit speed skating

GANGNEUNG, South Korea, Feb. 21 (Yonhap) -- South Korea won silver in the PyeongChang Winter Games men's team pursuit speed skating on Wednesday, finishing runner-up in the second consecutive Olympics. The trio of Lee Seung-hoon, Kim Min-seok and Chung Jae-won timed 3:38.52 in the eight-lap race, losing to the Norwegian team by 1.2 seconds at the team pursuit finals held at the Gangneung Oval. The bronze medal went to the Netherlands who beat New Zealand in the B finals. South Korea won silver in the three-on-three race at Sochi 2014, defeated by the Netherlands. Leader Lee had his fourth Olympic medal -- one gold and three silver -- in speed skating, more than his teammate Lee Sang-hwa who has three, Japanese Nao Kodaira and other Asian skaters. He also became the first Asian male skater to earn Olympic medals in the three straight games since Vancouver 2010, while 16-year old Chung Jae-won became the youngest South Korean medalist in speed skating. The Korean squad, a mixture of a veteran and two teenagers, was on a roll. It recorded the fastest time in the quarterfinals and beat New Zealand in the semifinals. In the finals against the Norway team of Havard Bokko, Simen Spieler Nilsen and Sverre Lunde Pedersen, the Korean trio started the race with Kim in front. But they slightly lagged behind the Norwegian team from the beginning and could not catch up with the gold medalist team until the final lap. The 29-year-old only learned of his accomplishment after the race, and the first people he thanked were his two younger teammates. "I'd like to thank those guys for supporting me in this race," Lee said in a televised interview. "I believe they will develop into skaters who can lead the way even better than I can." He said he will do his best until his last competition, the mass start, scheduled on Saturday. In the mass start, which will be contested for the first time at PyeongChang, all skaters start on the ice at the same time like short track speed skating. Lee, who switched to long track speed skating from short track, is the favorite for gold medal at the new segment. "I'm running for gold at the mass start, but I'm on my guard as the mass start is so dynamic," said Lee. "I think I can deal with any unexpected situations during the race." Kim, who won bronze in the men's 1,500m, said their first goal was to win gold, but the tight schedule of two races, which were two hours apart, kept him from fully recovering from fatigue. "It's great to win two medals at my first Olympics. I hope to use this as a stepping stone for my future," said the 18-year old. Chung said he gained confidence that the gold medal could be had after finishing first in the quarterfinals. He modestly said he was the weakest link of the three. "I've come this far because my two teammates really picked up the slack for me," Chung said. "Hopefully, I can help the team more at the next Olympics and win the gold medal." brk@yna.co.kr (END)