From the Turin Winter Olympic Games one year ago, the Asian athletes brought back nine gold medals, seven silvers and seven bronzes -- out of 84 events.
Wang Beixing of China crowned women's 500x2 speedskating at 6th Winter Asaid in Changchun, capital of the northeast China's Jilin Province. [Xinhua]
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When the 6th Asian Winter Games is to ring down the curtain in Jilin Sunday evening, the world-level skaters and skiers excelled as expected but many medalists still have a long way to catch up with the top athletes in the world.
Short-track speedskating, figure skating and freestyle skiing displayed some high standard actions among the 47 events of the Asian Winter Games.
Olympic champions from China and South Korea ensured the short-track speedskating to be the most hotly-contested events as Turin 500m women's champion Wang Meng of China and South Korea's two Olympic triple winners Ahn Hyun-Soo and Jin Sun-Yu each had two titles to their names.
During the process, Ahn suffered from a bad cold, which could hardly reduce his stardom in China. Figure skating also caught much attention as former pairs world champions and Olympic bronze medalists Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo of China gave the sport a huge lift in Changchun.
The ladies event would have posed as one of the best competitions if South Korea's World Cup Finals titlist Kim Yu-Na and World Cup winner Mao Asada from Japan, both at 16, were not missing from the field.
Freestyle skiing saw Olympic champion Han Xiaopeng of China taking the men's aerial and Turin silver medalist Li Nina excelling in the women's competition.
For events like speedskating, ice hockey, curling, biathlon, Alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, the winners at the Winter Asiad are lesser known to the world.
Lee Kang-Seok of South Korea was the sole Asian male speedskater with a medal, a bronze, in the Olympics before he won the same event of 500m.
