First Medal Of Korea: Back Eun-bee`s Silver Medal In Speed Skating

Back Eun-bee won the first medal among the Korean players, who are participating in the ongoing 5th Winter Asian Games in Aomori, Japan.

Back recorded 4` and 31.41" in women`s 3000m speed skating held yesterday in Nakane Ice Rink, winning the silver medal. The gold medal went to Maki Dabata of Japan.

Back first began to attract the attention of the media by winning a bronze medal in the World Junior Championship in 1999 in the 1500m race. Now she holds the Korea records in 1500m, 3000m and 5000m. Wining the medal, she made up for her "slow" performance in Kwongwon Championship. In the same race, another Korean skater Choi Yoon-sook ranked at 5th, recording 4` and 38.95".

In the alpine, which was expected to bring a gold medal for Korea, no Korean skier lived up to the expectation.

Korea`s star player Huh Seung-wook ranked just at 8th due to his knee injury, and Byun Chong-woon stayed at 7th.

In addition, male speed skaters made the future of South Korea much gloomier. Two star players of Korea, Choi Jae-bong and Lee Gyu-hyuk ranked just at 4th and 5th, respectively, in the first race of the 500m category. The first spot went to Hiroyatz Simiz, the Japanese skater renowned around the world. It is, however, too early to wrap up our hope. In the second race, they could catch up for the loss. Lee and Choi will run again in the 1500m race today.

In the meanwhile, North Korea`s ice hockey team lost yet another game to China in the full league, recording a three-game losing streak. Thus, it has become certain that it will not win any medal. Today, it will take on our team.

Jong-Koo Yang yjongk@donga.com