China wins first gold medal of Beijing Olympics

China won its first gold medal of the Beijing Winter Olympics on Saturday when the Chinese team claimed victory in the short track speedskating mixed team relay, Reuters reported.

The mixed team relay, a new event at the 2022 Winter Olympics, features teams made up of both men and women. China's gold-winning team includes male skaters Wu Dajing and Ren Ziwei and female skaters Qu Chunyu and Fan Kexin.

According to The Wall Street Journal, "China appeared to have the gold medal sewn up midway through the race, after skaters from Hungary and Canada collided. That made it a two-way race between China and Italy, which trailed by an eighth of a lap. But Italy made up ground against China in the final six laps, prompting Italian skater Pietro Sighel and China's Wu Dajing to stretch out their skates over the finish line."

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In the end, China's team finished with a time of 2 minutes and 37.348 seconds compared to Italy's 2 minutes and 37.364 seconds.

The Chinese team finished behind the United States and Hungary in the semi-final round but was able to advance to the medal round after the U.S. team was disqualified for obstruction.