From Pyeongchang, KOR
(November 14, 2024) – Olympian Wengang Yan slid to his first gold medal in nearly five years on Thursday in Pyeongchang in the third race of the IBSF Asian Cup.
Yan took the lead by two tenths of a second over Taiwan’s Lin-Wei Peng after the first heat, with Korea’s Chanhyuk Yeo and Yeonsu Shin both within three tenths of a second behind them.
The second heat saw Yeonsu Shin take the lead from fourth, and hold it as both Yeo and Peng were unable to match their first efforts. Yan, though, out-slid everyone with the fastest run of both heats on his way to a .32 second victory over Shin.
It was Yan’s first gold medal since a North American Cup event in Lake Placid in November 0f 2019. Since then, Yan has gone on to win a bronze medal in the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, as well as in a World Cup event on home ice in Yanqing during the 2023/2024 season.
For Shin, the jump to silver gave him his first international tour medal of his career. He’d previously won bronze on home ice in the Youth Olympic Games in January 2024. Teammate Yeo’s bronze was his second medal of this Asian Cup season.
Zhongxu Lin of China jumped up from sixth in the first heat to finish fourth, with Peng fifth and Canada’s Mark Lynch the top non-Asian slider in sixth.
Israel’s Oren Milstein finished just outside of the top ten in 11th, ahead of Canada’s Brayden Posyluzny in 12th with Australia’s Ben Chater rounding out the 13 slider field.
The IBSF Asian Cup has one more race on Friday to the halfway point of the season before heading to Yanqing. The World Cup will kick off on Saturday with two races on the 2018 Olympic track before also moving north to Yanqing.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Finish |
| 1 | Wengang Yan | CHN | 2 | 4.82 | 4.80 | 53.70 | 55.79 | 1:49.49 |
| 2 | Yeonsu Shin | KOR | 8 | 5.00 | 4.98 | 53.99 | 55.82 | 1:49.81 |
| 3 | Chanhyuk Yeo | KOR | 4 | 4.78 | 4.80 | 53.93 | 56.10 | 1:50.03 |
| 4 | Zhongxu Lin | CHN | 1 | 4.81 | 4.88 | 54.16 | 56.18 | 1:50.34 |
| 5 | Lin-Wei Peng | TPE | 3 | 5.04 | 4.91 | 53.90 | 56.68 | 1:50.58 |
| 6 | Mark Lynch | CAN | 6 | 4.99 | 4.99 | 54.14 | 57.15 | 1:51.29 |
| 7 | Sungsu Lee | KOR | 7 | 4.81 | 4.85 | 54.67 | 56.64 | 1:51.31 |
| 8 | Chun-Jhung Chiang | TPE | 7 | 5.05 | 5.12 | 54.69 | 56.83 | 1:51.52 |
| 9 | Eunwoo Kwack | KOR | 10 | 5.09 | 5.15 | 54.94 | 57.10 | 1:52.04 |
| 10 | Kevin Heng Lee | TPE | 13 | 5.08 | 5.08 | 56.03 | 58.67 | 1:54.70 |
| 11 | Oren Milstein | ISER | 5 | 5.14 | 5.28 | 58.84 | 57.11 | 1:55.95 |
| 12 | Brayden Posyluzny | CAN | 11 | 4.87 | 4.91 | 59.86 | 59.20 | 1:59.06 |
| 13 | Ben Chater | AUS | 12 | 5.77 | 5.69 | 60.32 | 60.73 | 2:01.05 |
