Two days after disappointment, Sun Long catches a silver in Milan

by sportswriters Gao Meng and Li Jia

MILAN, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- Two days after absorbing a painful relay setback, Sun Long delivered a response that spoke louder than words.

The 25-year-old Chinese skater captured silver in the men's 1,000 meters at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics on Thursday night, earning China's first short track speed skating medal of the Games and steadying himself after a turbulent 48 hours.

Sun surged in the closing laps of the A final, slipping past Canadian veteran William Dandjinou and South Korea's Rim Jong-un with two clean overtakes before finishing just 0.028 seconds behind Dutch winner Jens van 't Wout.

"I wasn't thinking about anything," Sun said later in the mixed zone, his eyes still red. "Once you're in that position, you just go."

The medal came against the backdrop of disappointment.

On Tuesday, China led the mixed team relay final before slipping to fourth. As the anchor skater, Sun drew scrutiny for a late error.

Social media criticism followed quickly, reviving memories of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, where he fell in the decisive stages of the men's 5,000-meter relay final, derailing China's medal hopes.

"It was a long day," Sun said of the relay defeat. "No one on the team blamed me. But you know it's just hard to adjust. The schedule doesn't wait for you. You have to move on."

He did.

In a tactical 1,000-meter final that tightened over the last laps, Sun stayed patient before accelerating at precisely the right moment.

Liu Shaoang, who had missed the A final after a semifinal mistake but remained aside to watch, rushed over and gave Sun a big hug.

"The first thing he told me was, 'Good job,'" Sun said.

Liu said Sun didn't even know his place at first. "It's good to stand there and support each other," Liu said. "We win together and lose together."

Sun echoed that sentiment, saying he wished more than one Chinese skater had made it to the A final.

"If two of us were there, maybe the result would be different," he said. "When someone wins a medal, the whole team feels it." ■