Vancouver / Canada

After winning the 1500m in Short Track last week, World Cup leader Korean Jung-Su Lee won the 1000m men today setting a new Olympic Record of 1:23.747. His compatriot Ho-Suk Lee won silver and Apolo Anton Ohno (USA), who took silver in the 1500, finished in third place. For Ohno, the most decorated short track speed skater ever, it was his 7th Olympic medal. Ohno also passed Bonnie Blair who won six Winter Olympic medals.

In the final race, they skated with the two Canadian brothers Charles and François Hamelin. François Hamelin had been advanced to the finals when he fell due to a move that J.R. Celski (USA) made. Charles was the fastest of them in the finals and was leading the race for some time. But in the last laps he was first passed by the Koreans and then by Ohno.

Ho-Suk Lee had taken the lead and kept it until close to the end; then in the last lap he was passed by his team mate. Jung-Su was only .054 seconds ahead of Ho-Suk Lee. For Ho-Suk Lee, it was his third Olympic silver medal.

The B-final consisted of only two skaters, of which Si-Bak Sung was disqualified and Jialiang Han won. Sung set the previous Olympic record in the heats on Feb. 17. (1:24.245).

Apolo Anton Ohno said: “It’s inspirational to me that just by being an athlete I can affect so many lives.” And on being the most decorated USA Winter Olympian: “I don’t put labels on myself. I just consider myself an athlete who’s competing at my third Olympic Games, competing my heart out.”

Ho-Suk Lee (23): “This is the first race I competed in after being disqualified in the Men’s 1500m Final. What happened there was that I was not able to play the game I wanted to after my injury. But I tried to have a positive attitude for the future, so I watched some videos of my past performances. For the 1000m, it went well and I am happy with the results.”

Jung-Su Lee (20): “With the two Canadian brothers in the front, my strategy was just to advance. Once I advanced to the front, all I could think of was just staying there.”