Hwang Dae-heon of Korea, left, finishes third in his heat in the men's 500-meter short track speed skating event at the Winter Olympics at Milano Ice Skating Arena in Milan, Monday. Yonhap
MILAN — Two Korean short track speed skaters were eliminated early in the men's 500-meter event at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics on Monday.
Both Hwang Dae-heon and Rim Jong-un failed to make it out of the heats in the 500m at Milano Ice Skating Arena. Out of eight heats, only the top two skaters earned automatic spots in the quarterfinals, with the fastest third-place skater also progressing. Three others received "advancements" from the referee after being fouled by others during the race.
Hwang, the 2018 silver medalist in this event, finished third in Heat 4 with a time of 41.191 seconds. Hwang stuck out his blade at the finish line, but Felix Pigeon of Poland finished in second place in 41.179 seconds.
Hwang won silver in the 1,500m here on Saturday and won't get to add any more individual medals here.
USA's Andrew Heo, China's Lin Xiaojun, Korea's Rim Jong-un compete in the short track speed skating men's 500m heats during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at Milano Ice Skating Arena in Milan, Monday. AFP-Yonhap
Rim, the 1,000m bronze medalist from Thursday, finished third in Heat 8 at 41.289 seconds. That group got a restart after Rim and Niall Treacy of Britain got tangled up and fell before passing the first corner.
In Monday's competition, Denis Nikisha of Kazakhstan (40.818 seconds) posted the fastest time among third-place skaters. Kazuki Yoshinaga of Japan, Denis Ors of Turkey and Daniil Eybog of Uzbekistan each received an advancement.
South Korea has not had a gold medalist in the men's 500m since Chae Ji-hoon won the inaugural title in 1994.
Source: Korea Times News
