South Korea’s Noh Jin-kyu and Cho Ha-ri grabbed the men’s and women’s overall titles at the World Short Track Speed Skating Championships that concluded in Sheffield, England, early Monday, Korean time.

Noh, 18, took three titles at this year’s championships. On the final day of competition, he won the men’s 1,000-meter race in 1 minute, 28.552 seconds, beating Charles Hamelin of Canada by 0.111 seconds, and added another title in the 3,000m. Noh had won the 1,500m race on the first day and earned 102 points to capture the overall title.

The winner in each race was awarded 34 points, while the runner-up got 21 points and the third-place skater received 13 points.

This is the first year on the senior circuit for Noh, last year’s world junior champion. He won two gold medals for South Korea at the Asian Winter Games in Kazakhstan in February.

South Korea has now won three straight men’s overall world titles, after Lee Ho-suk grabbed back-to-back titles in 2009 and 2010, and has captured nine of the past 10 overall championships.

Cho, 24, won two titles and earned 81 points for her overall title. She won both the 1,000m and 3,000m on the final day. The victory in the 3,000m put Cho ahead of Arianna Fontana of Italy, who blew her overall lead by finishing out of the podium in that distance.

Cho was third overall a year ago and this was her first career world overall title. Her compatriot Park Seung-hi was the overall winner in 2010.

Short trackers will travel to Warsaw, Poland, for the World Short Track Speed Skating Team Championships, where countries are awarded points based on their skaters’ performances.
 
(Yonhap News)