SEOUL, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- South Korea showed their strength on the opening day of finals at the ISU World Cup Short Track in Nagoya, winning all five gold medals on offer.
South Korean skaters won both the men's and women's 1,000m, 1,500m on Saturday as well as the mixed 2,000m relay. China should have taken a bronze in the relay, but they were penalized for blocking by an infield skater, which promoted the Netherlands into the bronze medal position. Russia took silver.
Kim Ji-yoo picked up South Korea's first gold medal of the day, winning the women's 1,500m final in 2:30.432. Canadian Kim Boutin was second while Italy's Arianna Fontana came third.
The men's 1,500m followed, and Kim Dong-wook executed his game plan to perfection.
Hungary's Shaolin Sandor Liu was leading before finding himself sandwiched between Japan's Keita Watanabe and Shogo Miyata.
Liu crashed while turning and was later penalized for the incident before Kim and countryman Park In-wook took control. The Korean duo dominated the final few laps to finish first and second, leaving Watanabe to claim the bronze medal.
"We know the Japanese ice has (just) OK speed, so the strategy is changing because we are planning to be more 'last-minute', waiting to see which skaters are moving," Kim said.
"We keep watching (and) we wanted everybody moving to us, so it's easy to react to the move and win."
In the women's 1,000m final, Noh Ah-rum of South Korea passed Dutch star Suzanne Schulting late in the race to finish first in 1:32.168. USA's Kristen Santos finished third.
Park Ji-won was next to win for South Korea, working his way to a huge lead in the men's 1,000m final with 1:26.619. Shaoang Liu of Hungary took the silver medal and Russia's Semen Elistratov the bronze.
Also on Saturday, Russia, South Korea, China and Kazakhstan progressed to the men's 5,000m relay final, which will be held on Sunday.
