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South Korea Nudges Defending Champions China Into 2nd Place in Short Track Speed Skating

SOCHI — South Korea blazed to the gold medal in the women's 3,000m short track relay on Tuesday, winning an exciting last-leg duel with the defending Olympic champions China.

The Korean lineup of Shim Suk-hee, Kim Alang, Cho Ha-ri and Park Seung-hi posted a winning time of 4:09.408 minutes for their country's first short track gold of the Sochi Winter Olympics.

China's time was 4:10.641 but the Vancouver 2010 gold medalists were given a penalty and disqualified from the final. A subsequent protest was turned down and the nature of the infraction was not immediately clear.

The decision meant that Canada, with a time of 4:14.014, moved up for a silver medal, which it also won on home ice four years ago.

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