Gold medalists team South Korea attend the awarding ceremony of the mixed 2000m relay final match of the short track speed skating event at the 9th Asian Winter Games in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Feb. 8, 2025. (Xinhua/Zhang Tao)

South Korea claimed the opening gold at the Harbin Asian Winter Games in the short track speed skating mixed 2,000m relay on Saturday.

South Korean quartet of Kim Gil-li, Choi Min-jeong, Park Ji-won, and Kim Tae-sung finished first in two minutes and 41.534 seconds. Kazakhstan took a silver in 2:42.258, while the bronze went to Japan, 1.800 seconds further back.

"We were trailing behind when there were only two laps left in the race, but I wasn't as anxious as I had imagined I would be. I told myself to stay as focused as possible - anything could happen, and it was worthy for a try," Park noted.

"The first final went quite smooth, so I think I might achieve good results in the following competitions as well. Let's wait and see," said Park, who continued the momentum to claim his second gold in men's 1,500m later on Saturday.

Chinese skaters once took lead in the race but dropped to the fourth, as Lin Xiaojun slipped out of the track.

"Short track speed skating is full of surprises and accidents - that's the charm of the sport. And I think every Chinese skater performed really well today," said Qu Chunyu, who won China's first Olympic short track mixed relay gold at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.