CHINESE speed skater Zhou Yang timed her charge to perfection to retain her 1,500 -meter short track title at the Sochi Winter Games on Saturday.

    It was China’s third gold medal in Sochi.

    On Thursday, short track speed skater Li Jianrou claimed China’s first gold medal, triumphing in the women’s 500-meter after all the other competitors crashed.

    The 27-year-old started from the most outside lane to be left behind soon, before pace-setter Park Seung-hi of South Korea was caught in a clash between British Elise Christie and Arianna Fontanna of Italy at the first bend. Li won the title unopposed with a time of 45.263 seconds, far away from the Olympic record of 42.985 held by her injured teammate Wang Meng.

    Hours later, Zhang Hong won a historic gold medal for China in the women’s 1,000-meter final. The 25-year-old skater made a strong sprint in the end of her race and timed one minute 14.02 seconds, which was nearly 0.7 second faster than anyone else and just missed the Olympic mark by 0.19 seconds.

    “I was nervous at the beginning, but after I finished it I felt so thrilled,” Zhou told reporters Saturday.

    “I’ve been through a lot during the past four years. I didn’t expect I could come back to the Olympic Games.”

    Zhou was a teenager when she won the 1,500-meter in Vancouver and then a gold in the 3,0000-meter relay. But she was not the favorite this time after Shim Suk-hee of South Korea established herself as the woman to beat.

    Just 17, Shim won at last year’s world championship and led for most of Saturday’s final before having to settle for silver.

    Italy’s Arianna Fontana finished third to add a bronze medal to the silver she won in Thursday’s 500-meter final.

    Russia surged to the top of the Olympic medal count standings Saturday for the first time, drawing on strong performances in speed skating and skeleton.

    Victor An, the former South Korean short track speed skater who became a Russian citizen for these Games, won gold in the 1,000-meter short track race Saturday. He was tailed by his Russian teammate Vladimir Gigorev, who took home silver in the event.

    Russia won a surprise gold in men’s skeleton after Alexander Tretiakov knocked off the defending world champion, Martin Dukurs from Latvia, who settled for silver. The event also yielded Team USA’s sole medal of the day when Matthew Antoine claimed bronze.

    U.S. medal favorites Shani Davis and Julia Mancuso landed off the podium in their events, the men’s 1,000-meter speed skate and the women’s super-giant.

    Russia has 15 total medals, followed closely by the Netherlands and the United States, who have 14 each. Germany still holds the highest number of gold medals at seven.

    (SD-Agencies)