South Korea's teenage speed skater Lee Sang Hwa has been promised a golden future after winning the 2009 Universiade's first gold medal in Harbin Thursday, just a year away to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games.
The super talent, who turns 20 years old next week, now sets an eye on winning the Olympic title after outclassing the 22-year-old Yu Jing of China in the women's 500 meters race.
"My next target is for sure to become the Olympic champion as well as winning a couple of World Cups," said Lee at a post-match press conference.
"I don't want to talk a lot about the future, however," she added. "I think what's best for me is just to work hard and to play my own race when there're the Olympics."
Thursday noon on the track, Lee twice smashed the universiade record of 38.64 set by herself two years ago in Turin, clocking 38.20 in the first race and 38.16 in the second to top the general standings for crown.
"It's a sweet surprise," said Lee, "To win the universiade's first gold is something beyond my expectation since I just wanted to race against the previous record."
Thursday's results were far from her best performance, as the thin girl holds a personal best of 37.81 in the 2007 World Single Distances Championships in Salt Lake City and has set the world junior record.
Rather than a boost to her self-confidence, the victory is more a cheer for Lee, who has been overshone by the Chinese in Asia, especially the Olympic silver medalist Wang Manli and the reigning Asian champion Wang Beixing.
"It had been a long time that I was the third or fourth or even fifth in a race while Chinese led the rankings," Lee said. "This time, I win over the Chinese, and next I'll move on and keep learning from them."
Lee beat China's favorite Yu Jing for Thursday trophy, after the duo paired up with each for the two rounds and the latter seemed under pressure.
"I've met Lee Sang Hwa for several times but had hardly raced against her simultaneously on the track before today's race, which made me clearly feeling my nerve," said Yu, the national champion of China who took the silver with 38.42 and 38.47.
Another Chinese Zhang Shuang was the third after taking the first race on 38.95 and the second 38.35, narrowly beating teammate Ren Hui, a double gold medals winner in the 2005 universiade, with a sum time difference of 0.01 seconds.
Born in a common family of South Korea as none of her parents was professional skater, Lee got to learn skating in school and soon showed her potential in local events before making her debut on international stage.
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 under-19 world record was 38.53.
Her first official championship, recognized by the International Skating Union (ISU), was in Roseville, Minnesota during the 2004 World Junior Championships. As the youngest participant, she finished 16th, though taking third place on the 500 meters, 0.45 seconds behind world junior record holder Shannon Rempel.
The following years saw the teenager improving more. Now the sprint distances specialist is a World Championships medalist on the 500 metres, placed in the top three in World Cup events four times.
Emerging as a very promising at senior level after becoming the South Korean champion, Lee was regarded a potential threat by the current world No. 1 Jenny Wolf of Germany in the rivalry of the 2010 Winter Olympics.
"Korean athlete Sang-Hwa Lee may be the other competitor who can fight for the gold medal with us in 2010," said the German late last year.
(Xinhua New Agency February 19, 2009)