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Winners, losers both gain from Winter YOG

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The inaugural Winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck Austria is not only a memorable moment for winners, but also a learning process for losers, since all the competitors are young.

Chinese speed skating prodigy Yang Fan collects his second gold medal in men's 3000m Wednesday in the Winter Youth Olympic Games held in Innsbruck Austria. [Xinhua photo]

Chinese speed skating prodigy Yang Fan collected his second gold medal in men's 3000m on Wednesday, and afterwards revealed his success was all down to a rigorous training regime.

"I like to train crazily hard, till I am very tired. I think only this way can I get good results," Yang said.

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The 16-year-old believed the success in Innsbruck will help to build a successful career in the sport. "It is good to have this success when I am still young," he said. "It builds my self-belief."

Seitaro Ichinohe of Japan was beaten to the second place with a huge deficit of near seven seconds. Ichinohe could not hide his disappointment.

"Six or seven seconds, that's really a huge difference," he said. "Of course, I will train very hard to close the gap on the Chinese skater."

DE Neeling Sanneke was also delighted to grab gold in speed skating women's 3000m, and the presence of her 81-year-old grandfather made it extra special.

"Without my grandfather I wouldn't even stand here right now," she said. "He was the one that introduced me to this wonderful sport."

In short track speed skating women's 1000m, the U.S. skater Warren Sarah suffered a stumble in the last lap of the final B, but the 16-year-old kept optimistic.

"The 2018 Olympic Winter Games will be my goal. Other events will be regarded as the process to gold medal," said Sarah with a smile.

Winners and losers made up the Winter YOG, which has reached its halfway mark in the ten-day competition.

Gilbert Felli, International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Director for the Olympic Games, said during a news conference that people are starting to fall in love with the YOG's concept.

"What was demonstrated in Innsbruck is that people are beginning to understand and fall in love with the Youth Games, which is something different and only for the youth," Felli said.

He believed the models provided by Singapore and Innsbruck for the Youth Olympic Games would give more directions to the future hosting city about how exactly to organize these Games.

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