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[zhangyang]

TURIN, Feb. 15 (Xinhuanet) -- Chinese Wang Meng won the women's 500m short track speedskating Wednesday night, reaping China's first gold medal in the Turin Winter Olympic Games.

Olympic debutant Wang finished in 44.345 seconds, winning the nation's third winter Olympic gold after Yang Yang's two in 2002.

Bulgarian Evgenia Radanova, world record holder and 2002 silver medalist, had to settle for a silver again with a time of 44.374 seconds.

Canada's Anouk Leblang-Boucher got the bronze in 44.759 with Wang's teammate Fu Tianyu disqualified for cross tracking.

The 20-year-old Wang, who has won four World Cup races over 500m, proved herself as the most consistent short tracker in the world.

Her victory helped ease China's pain of losing an expected goldin the women's 500m long-track speedskating when World Cup leader Wang Manli finished second to Russia's Svetlana Zhurova on Tuesday.

Like China's Athens Olympic champion Liu Xiang, Wang jumped to the podium, waving excitedly to the cheering crowd.

"Till I jumped onto the podium did I know my name had not yet been announced," Wang said, laughing. "I was just so excited and anxious to get onto the podium."

Wang, however, admitted she wasn't satisfied with her performance.

"Actually I was pretty nervous tonight," Wang said. "My run was not very good from the beginning. My coach has been encouraging meall the time, telling me to trust myself. I followed the advice and I made it today."

Yi Min, head coach of the Chinese women's team, said he was worried before the semis because Wang didn't skate to her best in the quarters.

"Wang Meng seemed to be a little tense and was not herself," Yin told Xinhua. "She should have won more easily."

Wang, known for calmness in competition, said she didn't understand why she was suddenly so nervous.

"I didn't feel pressure before I came to Turin. But here I realized that the Olympics is totally different from the World Cupor the world championships. That thought made me nervous," Wang said. Enditem