China wins 1st gold of Olympics in short track relay

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China won its first gold medal of the Beijing Games, emerging victorious Saturday in short track speedskating's mixed team relay in the event’s Olympic debut.

Wu Dajing edged Pietro Sighel of Italy by .016 seconds — or half a skate blade — to claim gold. Hungary earned bronze.

Qu Chunyu, Fan Kexin and Ren Ziwei joined Wu for the historic victory. The small number of Chinese fans at Capital Indoor Arena cheered and waved tiny flags.

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Team China celebrate after winning the gold medal in the mixed team relay final during the short track speedskating competition at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Saturday, Feb. 5, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

The results were delayed while the referee reviewed the race. Canada was penalized for pushing from behind and causing contact with Hungary late in the race.

That set the stage for China to build a big lead over Italy going into the latter stages of the race. But the Italians rallied, careening around the rink in hot pursuit of the home team. Sighel nearly caught Wu in what would have been a huge upset.

China was the gold-medal favorite coming in, having led the World Cup standings this season.

The frantic event features four skaters per team covering 18 laps. Each skater races twice in the following order: woman, woman, man, man, woman, woman, man, man.

The final got off to a rocky beginning, with Hungary and Canada crashing in the first turn, forcing the race to be called back to the start.

China needed some help even getting to the A final.

It took penalties to the United States and Russian team to elevate the Chinese to the final, along with Hungary, which won in the semifinals.

The U.S. was called for blocking by an infield skater after the Americans had finished second. The Russians were penalized for an extra skater on the team causing an obstruction.

In the first semifinal, Canada and Italy advanced to the A final. The Netherlands, ranked second in the world, didn't advance when Suzanne Schulting crashed in a turn early in the race.

Music blared, colored lights flashed and one of the Olympic mascots waddled around, but the usually raucous atmosphere for short track was absent at Capital Indoor Stadium. COVID-19 restrictions kept most of the 17,345 seats empty. The only spectators were Chinese and they shouted behind masks for their country's skaters, but otherwise clapped politely and waved tiny flags.

The arena is famous for hosting table tennis matches between China and the United States in 1971 that became known as ping pong diplomacy, an event that paved the way for U.S. President Richard Nixon to visit Beijing the following year. It was site of volleyball at the 2008 Summer Olympics.