(Winter Asiad) Speed skater adds four Asian Games titles to growing legacy

OBIHIRO, Japan, Feb. 23 (Yonhap) -- South Korean speed skater Lee Seung-hoon, already a three-time Olympic medalist, added four Asian Winter Games titles here to his growing legacy this week.

The 28-year-old capped off a remarkable stretch with a mass start gold medal Thursday at Obihiro Forest Speed Skating Rink in Obihiro, some 200 kilometers east of the main host city, Sapporo.

Lee had earlier won gold medals in the 5,000m, 10,000m and team pursuit. Thursday's win made Lee the first South Korean to win four gold medals at a single Winter Asiad, breaking a tie with three others. Lee himself had also won three gold medals at the 2011 Asian Winter Games.

With seven career Winter Asiad titles, Lee has won the most gold medals in the continental competition among all South Koreans. Short track speed skater Ahn Hyun-soo -- currently skating for Russia as Victor An – had previously won five Winter Asiad gold medals.

And Lee insisted he's not about to sit back and relish his accomplishments.

"Until the day I retire, I want to stay at the top," Lee said. "I'd like to go down as an unprecedented athlete."

Lee started his athletic career as a short tracker. He won a pair of gold medals at the 2008 short track world championships, but has carved out an even more impressive career after switching to speed skating in 2009.

Lee won the 2010 Olympic gold in the 10,000m and added a silver in the 5,000m. At the 2014 Games, Lee grabbed a team pursuit bronze. He has since focused on the mass start, a niche discipline within speed skating that allows for some physical contact. Skaters all start simultaneously and a typical race plays out like a short track race -- slowly at first with the skaters bunched together, conserving their energy for late spurts, before turning chaotic at the end.

It's a speed skating purist's nightmare but it suits Lee just fine. As a former short tracker, he's well-trained in race strategies and in making deft passes in corners.

In Thursday's victory, Lee said some help from his teammates was the key.

"I was able to win the gold because my two teammates, Kim Min-seok and Lee Jin-yeong, sacrificed themselves," Lee said. "I learned that teamwork is just as important in the mass start as it is in the team pursuit."

In Thursday's race, Ryosuke Tsuchiya of Japan charged out in front early, forcing others to try to play catch-up. And it was Kim and Lee Jin-yeong who did the work, putting the pressure on Tsuchiya while Lee Seung-hoon was saving his energy.

The South Korean veteran ended up winning the race by about half a second ahead of Shane Williamson of Japan, while Kim won the bronze and Lee Jin-yeong ended in fourth. Tsuchiya was in fifth, nearly 12 seconds behind the gold medalist.

"I'm grateful for my teammates for grasping our strategies and executing them," Lee Seung-hoon added.

Much has been made about Lee's health this week. He raced here with eight stitches in his right calf, after cutting himself with his own left skate during a fall at the International Skating Union (ISU) World Single Distances Speed Skating Championships earlier this month in South Korea.

Lee surprised many when he declared himself ready for the Asian Winter Games only three days after the injury. And he said he surprised himself with how great he's been feeling all week.

"I only thought about entering the team pursuit and mass start here, and I was shocked to feel so great after the 5,000m on the first day (Monday)," he said. "In the past, I'd get sick after skating in the 10,000m, but today (a day after the 10,000m victory), I am perfectly fine."

Lee admitted he had lost interest in the 5,000m and 10,000m of late, because he previously struggled in those two events and had done much better in the team pursuit and mass start.

Performances here may change that.

"I've been thinking I should just focus on the team pursuit and mass start at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics next year," Lee said. "But after the Asian Games, I've grown more confident in the two other races."

jeeho@yna.co.kr
(END)