Winning it on the home stretch

"Home, sweet home," echoed in the minds of Chinese speed skaters Gao Tingyu and Ning Zhongyan as they stepped into the familiar surroundings of the Speed Skating Oval at the Heilongjiang Ice Training Center, a venue where the local pair trained from a young age.

Amid the cheers of the home fans, Gao went on to win the men's 100m gold, while Ning claimed top honors in the men's 1,500m at the Harbin Asian Winter Games on Saturday. Gao was China's sole gold medalist in speed skating at the 2017 Asian Winter Games in Sapporo, Japan, where he won the men's 500m race. He also became China's first male Olympic speed skating champion when he clinched the 500m gold at Beijing 2022 in an Olympic-record time of 34.32 seconds. Harbin 2025 marks not just Gao's second journey to the Winter Asiad, but also a homecoming to the place where his dreams had taken root.

On Saturday Gao was the last to start, duelling with Korean athlete Kim Jun-ho. Prior to his run, Yevgeniy Koshkin of Kazakhstan was in first place with a time of 9.47 seconds.

Gao, though, remained calm.

"When I saw their results, I felt even more determined and thought I must win this gold medal," he recalled.

As the signal blared, he exploded into motion, his arms pumping furiously at his sides to generate maximum speed. With each powerful stride, his razor-sharp bladed bit into the ice, sending shavings from the frozen surface flying.

Despite struggling with injuries on this season's World Cup circuit, Gao managed to defend his title. He clocked 9.35 seconds, setting a new Asian record.