South Korea's Choi wins 1,500 in Olympic short track
BEIJING - Choi Minjeong of South Korea successfully defended her Olympic title in the 1,500-meter short-track speedskating race on Wednesday.
She won in 2 minutes, 17.789 seconds, extending the tradition of Asian dominance in the event.
Arianna Fontana of Italy took silver by two-thousandths of a second over Suzanne Schulting of the Netherlands.
It was Fontana's 11th career Olympic medal and third in Beijing. The most decorated short track skater in history also won the 500 and took silver in the mixed team relay.
Schulting earned her fourth medal in Beijing. She finished second in the 500, and won the 1,000 and the 3,000 relay.
Canada won the men's 5,000 relay on the final night of short track at Capital Indoor Stadium.
The team of Charles Hamelin, Steven Dubois, Jordan Pierre-Gilles and Pascal Dion skated cleanly to take their nation's eighth gold medal in the 45-lap race with a time of 6:41.257.
At age 37, Hamelin broke his own record as the oldest male short track skater to win an Olympic medal. It was his sixth career medal.
South Korea earned silver. Italy claimed bronze.
Dubois won his third medal in Beijing. He finished second in the 1,500 and third in the 500.
China crashed later in the race, much to the dismay of the fans, who waved the host country's flag and chanted encouragement.
---
More AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP-Sports