VANCOUVER, Feb 24, 2010 (AFP) - China smashed South Korea's winning streak in the Olympic women's short-track 3,000-metre relay with a world record time at the Vancouver Games on Wednesday.
South Korea finished first in the final but were then disqualified after referees ruled that Kim Min-Jung impeded Sun Linlin's path after a handover with six laps to go.
Canada took the silver and the bronze went to the United States.
Led by newly-crowned Olympic champions Wang Meng (500m) and Zhou Yang (1,500m), China clocked 4min 06.61sec, breaking their own world record of 4:07.179 set in Salt Lake City in October 2008.
Sun explained: "She (Kim) was trying to overtake me and she couldn't get through so I guess that's how the collision happened.
"I think the referee's decision is fair."
South Korea, the most medaled nation in the Olympic short-track competition since the sport's debut in 1992, had reigned supreme in the event since a young squad dethroned Canada in 1994.
But China fired a warning by beating South Korea into second spot when they won their eighth world 3,000m relay title last year. They have since won three of the season's four World Cup relays and South Korea one.
After China took an early lead on Wednesday, they battled with South Korea until the controversial handover.
The Koreans kept the Chinese at a safe distance toward the finish and celebrated on the oval until the referee disqualified them.
"I wasn't surprised because in short track anything can happen. Whatever the judges say I will accept," Wang said.
"I was in charge of the first half of the relay and Zhou was in charge of second half. Everyone stayed calm through the race and I'm so proud of them."
China's Zhang Hui came off the ice with a bloodied chin.
"It was an accident," explained Wang.
"We were celebrating after the referee's decision and she was accidentally cut in the fact by a blade."
It was the second silver for Canada's Marianne St-Gelais after finishing second behind Wang in the 500m.
"Our time was super and then to find ourselves with the silver medal is just a joy," she said.
"I came to the Olympics with the idea that this team medal was more important that an individual medal."
Canada's Tania Vicent added: "We knew the Chinese and Korean teams were fighting it out so our tactic was to stay right behind them and take advantage of their mistakes.
"We got a record time for Canada, we can't do better than that."
