Winter Olympics: S. Korea take team silver in men's speed skating

South Korea won a silver in the PyeongChang Winter Games men's team pursuit speed skating on Wednesday, finishing runner-up in the second consecutive Olympics.

The trio of Lee Seung-hoon, Kim Min-seok and Chung Jae-won timed 3 minutes and 38.52 seconds in the eight-lap race, losing to the Norwegian team by 1.2 seconds at the team pursuit finals held at the Gangneung Oval, reports Yonhap news agency.

The bronze medal went to the Netherlands who beat New Zealand in the B finals.

South Korea took silver in the three-on-three race at Sochi 2014, defeated by the Netherlands.

Lee had his fourth Olympic medal -- one gold and three silver -- in speed skating, more than his teammate Lee Sang-hwa who has three.

He also became the first Asian male skater to earn Olympic medals in the three straight games since Vancouver 2010, while 16-year old Chung Jae-won became the youngest South Korean medallist in speed skating.

The Korean squad, a mixture of a veteran and two teenagers, was on a roll. It recorded the fastest time in the quarter-finals and beat New Zealand in the semi-finals.

In the final against the Norway team of Havard Bokko, Simen Spieler Nilsen and Sverre Lunde Pedersen, the Korean trio started the race with Kim in front.

But they slightly lagged behind the Norwegian team from the beginning and could not catch up with the gold medallist team until the final lap.

--IANS

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