VANCOUVER, Feb 16, 2010 (AFP) - South Korea celebrated the second leg of a speedskating double on Tuesday as China's top figure skaters, fresh from an historic pairs gold medal, turned their thoughts to family matters.
Lee Sang-Hwa took gold for Korea in the women's 500m speedskating, taking a shock victory over hot favourite Jenny Wolf of Germany.
Lee, leading after her first run, notched a combined time of 76.09sec for her two races (38.24 and 37.85), just 0.05sec ahead of Wolf.
China's Wang Beixing took the bronze in 76.63sec.
The win for the 20-year-old comes after South Korea claimed their first ever Winter Olympic gold outside short-track on Monday through Mo Tae-Bum in the men's 500m.
"The feeling has not sunk in yet. I cannot believe I have won the medal. I am very emotional and I feel like I am going to cry," said Lee.
While Lee celebrated, South Korea reignited their war of words with US short track skater Apolo Anton Ohno as memories of the controversial 2002 Olympics returned.
Ohno finished runner-up to Lee Jung-Su after two other leading Koreans, Sung Si-Bak and Lee Ho-Suk, collided and crashed into the boards in the men's 1500m final on Saturday.
Korean media slammed Ohno's post-race comments that the Korean skaters deserved to be disqualified in a fresh flare-up of the antipathy which surrounded him after he won the same event at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.
In the US city, South Korean star Kim Dong-Sung finished first in the 1500m final but was disqualified for blocking Ohno.
"I was hoping there was going to be another disqualification like in Salt Lake City," Ohno told reporters.
"The whole race there was a lot of contact, bumping, grabbing. It was a crazy race," added 27-year-old Ohno.
But Lee Jung-Su told Korean media it was Ohno who was "swinging his arms violently" in the semi-finals and final without showing it to the referees.
"He did not deserve to stand on the podium," Lee said.
For China, love was in the air on Tuesday.
Husband-and-wife team Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo, who came out of retirement to give China their first Olympic figure skating title, and break 50 years of Russian domination, said they were thinking of starting a family.
Meanwhile, silver medallists Tong Jian and Pang Qing have now also admitted they are in love.
Tong kissed the ice after the couple earned a standing ovation for their spectacular free skate, but he said he would rather have been locking lips with his partner.
"Actually, I wanted to kiss Pang after the free skating competition, but I didn't find her by my side. Now, I want to announce that we are in a relationship with each other," said Tong in comments carried by the China Daily.
Japan were well-placed in the men's tournament after the completion of the short programme.
Defending champion Yevgeny Plushenko led on 90.85pts ahead of America's world champion Evan Lysacek but Daisuke Takahashi, the 2007 world silver medallist, was third just ahead of Nobunari Oda, the winner of two Grand Prix events this season.
