South Korea swept up 7 gold medals, 5 silver medals, and 7 bronze medals on the first day of the 9th Harbin Winter Asian Games, ranking second overall behind host country China (8 gold, 8 silver, 4 bronze).
The 'golden child' sport of winter sports, short track speed skating, secured gold medals from the very first day. The first gold medal for the Korean delegation at this event came in the mixed 2000m relay final, the first medal match of the competition. Kim Gilli (Seongnam City Hall) in the women's 1500m, Park Jiwon (Seoul City Hall) in the men's 1500m, and Choi Minjeong (Seongnam City Hall) in the women's 500m continued the 'golden sprint'.
Additionally, in the women's 500m, Choi Minjeong led Kim Gilli and Lee Soyeon (Sports Toto) to win silver and bronze medals as well. In the men's 500m, Park Jiwon and Jang Seongwoo won silver and bronze medals respectively.
Gold medal news also continued in speed skating. Taking advantage of the host country's initiative, the newly introduced 100m event saw Lee Nahyun (Korea National Sport University) rise to the top in the women's division. Kim Minseon earned the silver medal. In the men's 100m, Kim Junho (Gangwon Province Office) took home the bronze medal.
In addition, Lee Chaewoon (Surigo) won the gold medal in the men's snowboard slopestyle final by scoring 90 points, surpassing Liu Haoyue (China, 76 points). Kang Donghoon (Gorim High School) enjoyed the joy of winning the bronze medal (74 points) in slopestyle on the same day, following Lee Chaewoon and Liu Haoyue.
Also, Lee Seunghoon (Korea National Sport University) won first place in the freestyle skiing halfpipe final with a high score of 97.5 points. This marked the first-ever Asian Games gold medal for Korean freestyle skiing.
In addition, Kim Sohee (Seoul City Hall) won the silver medal in the women's alpine skiing slalom with a combined time of 1 minute 34.06 seconds over two runs, following Maeda Chisaki (Japan, 1 minute 33.50 seconds).
Kim Kyungae (Gangneung City Hall) and Sung Jihun (Gangwon Province Office), who competed in mixed doubles curling, finished as runners-up after a close 5-6 loss to Japan in the final.
In the cross-country sprint event, male athletes Lee Geonyong and Byun Jiyoung (both from Gyeonggi Province Office), Lee Jinbok and Lee Junseo (both from Dankook University), and female athletes Lee Eujin (Busan City Sports Council), Lee Jiye (Pyeongchang County Office), and Han Dasom (Gyeonggi Province Office) participated but none advanced beyond the quarterfinals.
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