Seoul / Korea

Wu Dajing of China appears to be peaking at the right time, winning the men’s 500m at the Audi ISU World Cup Short Track to add to his two gold medals last week.

#WCShortTrack            #ShortTrackSkating

GettyImages 875659526

The sprint king also cemented his status, overtaking Samuel Girard (CAN) – who did not advance from the quarterfinals – to claim the world cup 500m overall crown.

Wu held off two Koreans in Shanghai, and in Seoul on Saturday he held off Hungary’s Liu brothers.

Ahead of February’s PyeongChang Olympics, the 23-year-old sounded a warning.

“I hope to get more gold medals to raise my confidence.”

Wu led from start to finish in a fast final.

It was not lost on the four finalists that there were two Chinese and two Hungarians in it, or that the podium was a repeat of last week’s 1000m race.

Silver medallist Shaolin Sandor, who like his brother Shaoang is half-Chinese, quipped: “That’s what we said after the semifinals. Two Hungarians, two Chinese. We made little jokes about it. We finished the same result as in Shanghai.”

Wu interpreted the final’s composition in a different way.

“There were two Hungarians and one teammate in the race so I had to constantly monitor them.”

Much has been made about the Liu brothers’ rise under Chinese coach Zhang Jing and their Chinese heritage. Wu admitted that they are “good friends, but we won’t give in to each other.

“We do our best for our countries. I still hope my own teammates do better than others.”

Korea’s Kwak Yoon Gy won the B final.

The confirmed list of quota places for the PyeongChang Olympics will be announced by the ISU.

Full entry lists and results of the Audi ISU World Cup Short Track Speed Skating are available here.