体坛英语新闻：South Korea dominates podium in ladies' 500m speedskating at Winter Universiade

TRENTO, Italy, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- South Korea dominated the podium in ladies' 500-meter speedskating of the Winter Universiade on Sunday.

Kim Hyun Yung won the gold and her teammate Park Seung Ju took silver while Ahn Jee Min got the bronze.

South Korea took four medals including one gold on the fourth day of the Winter Universiade to leapfrog Czech Republic and France to the third place with nine medals in the overall rankings.

Russia continue to lead in the medals hunt with 29 followed by Poland with 12.

The Russian team got four medals out of six at the freestyle skiing competition on Sunday.

In the women's race, Daria Nikolayeva took gold ahead of her two teammates Violetta Kovalskaya and Viktoria Struk, while Igor Omelin had silver in the men's race.

On the same day, the Russian team composed by Emil Vokuev and Eugenia Oschepkova placed first in cross country's mixed team sprint, while Sofia Biryukova also from Russia won the gold medal in women's figure skating.

Polish athletes also took a handful of medals on the fourth competition day. Jan Marek Szymanski finished first in the men's 1500m speed skating.

"My performance was excellent, and I will try to reach the qualification for the European Championship," he said.

Szymanski added his main goal of this season was the Sochi Winter Olympic Games though he was enjoying his time at the Winter Universiade.

Poland's Weronika Nowakowska-Ziemniak won gold in women's biathlon followed by her teammate Monika Hojnisz.

Another Polish athlete, Mateusz Habrat, was the winner in the first men's freestyle skiing, while Karolina Chrapek from the same country took silver in women's superG.

Serbia won its first gold medal at this Winter Universiade on Sunday with Milanko Petrovic taking first place in the 10km men's biathlon sprint.

Italy, the host country of the Winter Universiade, scored a total of eight medals of which two are golds.

The President of FISU (International University Sports Federation) Claude-Louis Gallien noted that the technical level was "very high, both in the Winter and in the Summer Universiade."

He said it was fundamental to train professional teams so that they could work at best and guarantee a trait d'union among the different editions.

"Indeed, there are countries like China that have the means to make fantastic editions," Gallien highlighted.

Several famous champions have established their world records at an Universiade, including Pietro Mennea, the Italian sprinter winner of Mexico Universiade in 1979, who has recently passed away.

The winning sprinters athletes competing on ice and snow at the ongoing Universiade will receive an award dedicated to him.

Organizers have described the 10-day event as a "challenge" because of the short time, or around one and half year, that the Organizing Committee had at its disposal.

On Sunday, the 26th Winter Universiade Trentino 2013 also paid tribute to Nelson Mandela on his funeral day.

Competitions in 10 different venues started by reading an extract of Italian President Giorgio Napolitano's speech saying the former South African president "has taught us that sport enables people to break down barriers."

"These are today's sportsmen and sportswomen, but some would become individuals with valuable economic and politic responsibilities tomorrow," the extract read.