Short tracker Hwang Dae-heon takes silver in men’s 1,500m

Hwang Dae-heon of South Korea celebrates after profitable the silver medal within the males’s 1,500-meter brief observe pace skating occasion on the Winter Olympics at Milano Ice Skating Area, Feb. 14. Yonhap

MILAN — Quick observe pace skater Hwang Dae-heon captured the silver medal within the males’s 1,500 meters on the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics on Saturday for his second consecutive medal in that distance.

Hwang completed in second place behind Jens van ‘t Wout of the Netherlands in a chaotic, nine-skater last at Milano Ice Skating Area, 4 years after profitable the gold medal in Beijing. Roberts Kruzbergs of Latvia took the bronze.

This was South Korea’s second brief observe medal right here and its fifth medal general. The nation leads the all-time brief observe medal race with 26 gold medals and 55 medals general.

Hwang now has 4 profession Olympic medals.

One other South Korean within the last, Shin Dong-min, completed in fourth place.

Each Hwang and Shin began the 13 1/2-lap race behind the pack, with William Dandjinou of Canada out in entrance early. With 9 laps to go, Steven Dubois fell and crashed into the padding, leaving a bit of more room for the remaining.

The 2 South Koreans remained within the again earlier than Hwang began accelerating on the surface with 5 laps remaining. Three extra skaters obtained worn out, permitting Hwang to take second place.

Shin barely ran into Dandjinou within the late levels, and that gave Hwang some opening to push right into a podium place.

Hwang could not fairly catch van ‘t Wout on the finish however nonetheless celebrated a medal within the midst of an injury-plagued season.

Hwang sustained a knee damage in November final 12 months and was mentioned to be lower than 100% for the Olympics.