Korea, Chinese Taipei get their skates on while they can

Guangzhou - With the Asian Games roller sports competition kicking off on Tuesday, participating athletes are treasuring every minute for fear this might be the first and last time the non-Olympic event is included in the games.

An Yi-seul skates her way to 300m time trial gold on Tuesday. [Photo/China Daily]

"The destiny of roller sports at the next Asiad is still uncertain. I really hope this will not be my last Asian Games gold medal," said Korea's An Yi-seul, who won the women's 300m time trial to capture the first Asiad gold medal ever awarded in the sport.

The Asian Olympic Committee has cut the number of non-Olympic sports from 14 to seven for the next Asian Games at Incheon, Korea. Roller sports is one of the events that could be axed.

An, a five-time Asian Championship winner, said winning an Asiad gold medal is more special because she is competing for the honor of her country alongside Korean athletes from several other sports.

The 18-year-old clocked 26.8 seconds to edge China's Zang Yinglu and Li Wenwen at the Guangzhou Velodrome, while skaters from Chinese Taipei took the three other gold medals up for grabs on Tuesday.

Sung Ching-yang and Lo Wei-lin finished 1-2 in both the men's 300m time trial and the 500m sprint, while Huang Yu-tong, Lo's girlfriend, took the gold medal in the women's 500m sprint.

"Winning two gold medals in a day makes me feel like a hero," said 18-year-old Sung.

Although Huang was happy for Sung, she was disappointed her boyfriend Lo did not duplicate her gold medal success.

"As skaters there is nothing we can do to keep our event in the games except to give our best performance on the track and show how fantastic roller sports can be," said Huang.

Huang said beating Korea's An was "so cool, because it was a very close call."

An led from the start in the 500m sprint, but over the last fifth of the race Huang managed to overtake her.

It was a sweet revenge for Huang, who clocked a disappointing 27.7 seconds in the 300m time trial - far below the 26.4 seconds she recorded in winning the event at this year's Asian Championships.

Korea (47 medals) and Chinese Taipei (35) have been the most successful participants at the World Roller Speed Skating Championships, where Japan and China have only won one medal each.