China's Gao Mingyu competes during men's 500m speed skating at the 2017 Sapporo Asian Winter Games in Sapporo, Japan, Feb. 20, 2017. (Xinhua/Jiang Wenyao)
The 20-year-old Chinese Gao Tingyu won the men's 500m speed skating gold medal at the 8th Asian Winter Games on Monday, clocking at 34.49 seconds.
Gao, who ranked second in the men's 500m during 2016-2017 World Cup calender, took the outside line in pairing with the Japanese Hasegawa Tsubasa at the Obihiro Forrest Speed Skating Oval.
Gao beat Tsubasa by 0.1 second, while the bronze medal went to Cha Min Kyu of South Korea at 34.94.
In the women's 1,000m, Sochi Winter Olympic champion Zhang Hong of China failed to defend her title as she ranked third in 1:15.75. The top two places were occupied by Japanese duo Kodaira Nao in 1:15.19 and Takagi Miho in 1:15.31. China's other skaters Li Qishi and Yu Jing placed the 7th and 9th respectively.
Earlier, Takagi won the women's 3,000m race, clocking at 4:05.75. Kim Bo Reum of South Korea took the silver in 4:07.80, while Sato Ayano of Japan was third in 4:10.07. Chinese teenager Han Mei ranked the fourth.
In the men's 5,000m event, South Korean Lee Seung-hoon won the gold in 6:24.32. Ten days ago, he had eight stitches on his right calf after he cut himself with his own left skate in a fall during the team pursuit competition at the world championships in South Korea.
Tsuchiya Ryosuke of Japan won the silver, clocking at 6:29.67 and his compatriot Ichinohe Seitaro placed the third in 6:31.84.
