Lee Sang-Hwa
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Lee Sang-Hwa (born 25 February 1989) is a South Korean long track speed skater who specialises in the sprint distances. She is a World Championships medallist on the 500 metres, and on this distance she has also placed in the top three in World Cup events four times. Her first World Cup victory, however, came on the non-Olympic distance 100 metres. On the 1,000 metres, however, she has never been better than eighth in international events.
[edit] Career
Lee first competed internationally aged 14 in Canada, where she skated several test races in October 2003, winning comfortably and skating with a best time of 39.02 seconds. At the time, the U19 world record was 38.53. Her first ISU championship was in Roseville, Minnesota during the 2004 World Junior Championships. As the youngest participant, she finished 16th, though she took third place on the 500 metres 0.45 seconds behind world junior record holder Shannon Rempel.
The following season, she raced 38.77 in test races in Calgary, and was selected for the World Cup races in Nagano, Harbin and Calgary. She placed eighth in her first race, recording 38.71 in the M-Wave, Nagano, 0.29 seconds behind winner Wang Manli. She finished in the top ten a further five times that season, including two fourth-place finishes in 100 metre sprints, which gave her fifth place overall in the 100 metre World Cup. In other achievements, she won two senior Korean titles (on 2 × 500 metres and sprint, and came 14th in the 500 metres World Cup standings, 16th in the 1000 metres, and 15th in the samalog standings in the World Sprint Championships, though she was within half a second of the winner on both 500 metre races, finishing 9th and 12th.
In World Championships, Lee won three medals this season; two in the junior championships, where she won bronze in the overall standings, though she was four points after the winner after 16th place on the 1500 and 19th on the 3000 metre event, and silver with the Korean team in the team pursuit event. And during the World Single Distance Championships in Inzell in March, two fourth-places were enough to take her to third place overall in the 500 metre competition, behind Chinese skaters Wang Manli and Wang Beixing.
In 2006, Lee improved on the 100 and 500 metres, though she fell into the B division on the 1000 metres. She finished on the World Cup podium four times during the season, including a win in the 100 metre World Cup final, though she finished behind Jenny Wolf in the overall standings. On the 500 metres, she was sixth in the World Cup. She also added three senior Korean titles to her record, winning the 500 metres, 1000 metres, and overall sprint championship. During the season, she registered a world junior record on the 500 metres, with a time of 37.90 in Utah Olympic Oval. She failed to improve on her 1000 metre time from last season, however.
The Turin Olympics ended with fifth place for Lee, despite her third-best second run which wasn't enough to lift her up more than one place. Earlier, she had finished 19th on the 1000 metres and 12th in the World Sprint Championships.
The 2007 season has seen further improvement for Lee. She is yet to finish outside the top two, and after three of 12 races she heads the overall standings on the 500 metres. She has also improved on the 1000 metres, and is currently 11th in the overall standings, with eighth place in Heerenveen as the best result.
[edit] Personal bests
| Distance | Time | Venue | Date | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 m | 10.46 | Thialf | 6 March 2005 | World Cup final |
| 500 m | 37.90 | Utah Olympic Oval | 20 November 2005 | World Cup race |
| 1000 m | 1:16.63 | Utah Olympic Oval | 22 January 2005 | Sprint World Championships |
