SEOUL, Lin Xiaojun, a South Korean-born Chinese short track speed skater, will miss an international competition in Seoul this week due to an injury, the national skating federation here said Wednesday.
Starting Friday, Mokdong Ice Rink in the capital city will host the fourth leg of the International Skating Union (ISU) World Cup Short Track Speed Skating season.
Lin, born Lim Hyo-jun, did not make the trip to his native country with the rest of the Chinese team on Monday, an official with the Korea Skating Union (KSU) confirmed Wednesday.
During the South Korean national team’s press conference Tuesday, head coach An Jung-hyun said he had been informed that Lin would be sitting out the World Cup in Seoul due to an unspecified injury.
If Lin had stayed healthy, he would have been in line for his first battle on South Korean ice against his ex-teammate and nemesis, Hwang Dae-heon.
Lin, who won a gold and a bronze at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, and Hwang, the 2022 Olympic champion in the men’s 1,500 meters, were locked in a legal battle over an incident during a training session in 2019. The KSU suspended Lin for one year but he was ultimately found not guilty by the Supreme Court in June 2021.
By that time, though, Lin had already acquired his Chinese passport.
Lin competed at the ISU world championships in Seoul in March this year, but Hwang had decided to sit out the 2022-2023 season due to health reasons and was not on the South Korean national team then.
Then at the first leg of the World Cup in Montreal on Oct. 21, the two finally went toe-to-toe for the first time since Lin’s naturalization.
It materialized in the semifinals of the men’s 1,500m. Hwang won Heat 2 in 2:15.332 to qualify for Final A, which he would go on to win later the same day. Lin finished third in Heat 2 in 2:16.240 and only advanced to Final B. He didn’t skate in that race.
On Lin’s absence, coach An said, “Rather than getting too conscious about any particular skater, we will just stay focused on our own tasks.”
In this EPA photo, Lin Xiaojun of China competes in the quarterfinals of the men’s 500 meters at the International Skating Union World Cup Short Track Speed Skating at Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing on Dec. 9, 2023. (Yonhap)
For South Korea, Hwang will be one of six male skaters. Kim Gun-woo is the overall World Cup leader with 534 points, followed by Steven Dubois of Canada with 473 and fellow Korean Park Ji-won, the overall champion last season, with 456.
Kim Gil-li, the World Cup leader on the women’s side with 615 points, will be headlining South Korea’s female contingent. Kim is only 15 points ahead of Kristen Santos-Griswold of the United States.
Source: Yonhap News Agency