South Korea's No. 1 woman speed skater Lee Sang Hwa has eyed on winning the first gold medal in dispute at the upcoming World Winter University Games here to start Wednesday.
"The women's 500 meters speed skating race will be the first event to produce a gold medal of the Winter Universiade on Thursday noon. Yes, I know it and I do want to win it. But what I have to do is just to let down my mind and to play my normal performance," said the teenage sensation who turns 20 years old next week.
"There's pressure on me, that's for sure. But I don't buy it," she added.
The South Korean delegation for the Winter Universiade has send a strong team to speed skating and has three titles in sight with Lee's victory in the women's 500 meters long track event in count.
"Since Lee's 500m could be the first gold that our country win here, we are sure to make more effort on her preparations," said Lee Jae Sik, team leader of the South Korean speed skating squad.
As the traditional powerhouses in speed skating, like Canada and the Netherlands, sent few of their senior athletes here for the Universiade, China, South Korea and Japan emerge as the hot favorite in the sport.
"We've named a strongest team for the event and are hopeful to win three gold medals out of the fourteen events in speed skating," said Lee Jae Sik, emphasizing that a Lee Sang Hwa victory on Thursday would be a perfect start for their team.
China's Yu Jing and Ren Hui will be among the favorites for the women's 500 meters against Lee, though the host nation's top female speed skater Wang Beixing has quit the squad to be the only Chinese big name absent here.
Lee Sang Hwa, however, was not scared of the hosts and thought herself to hold the same advantages to "play home".
"I don't think the Chinese are the only group to enjoy the Games at home," said Lee, who also competes in the women's 1000 meters. "South Korea have no time difference with China and I'm familiar with the skating tracks, that benefit me a lot as well as the Chinese skaters, compared with the Europeans."
"Also I've competed against Yu Jing and Ren Hui for several times and know them well." she added.
Lee finished fifth in the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin where the Chinese veteran Wang Manli won a silver in the women's 500 meters speed skating. And Lee, the current world junior record holder of the event, has finished on podium of four World Cups this year.
The 14-event speed skating competitions of the 24th World Winter Universiade will start Thursday and through to Feb. 26.
(Xinhua News Agency February 18, 2009)