Shim wins women's overall title at short track world championships

South Korean teenager Shim Suk-hee was crowned the women's overall champion at the World Short Track Speed Skating Championships in Montreal on Sunday.

Shim earned 102 total points by virtue of winning three races, becoming the first South Korean overall champ in the women's competition since Cho Ha-ri in 2011.

Another South Korean, Park Seung-hi, finished second overall with 73 points.

Shim, 17, won three medals in her first Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, last month. She anchored the 3,000ｍ relay team to the gold medal, and added a silver and a bronze each in the 1,500ｍ and the 1,000ｍ.

She was even better in Canada, taking both the 1,000ｍ and the

1,500ｍ, and then winning the 3,000ｍ superfinal on the final day of the competition.

At world championships, skaters receive points based on their finishes in individual races. Winners earn 34 points, runners-up 21 points and third-place skaters 13 points, and so forth. The top eight skaters in points after the 500ｍ, 1,000ｍ and 1,500ｍ qualify for the 3,000ｍ superfinal.

Park, a double gold medalist from Sochi, finished second overall for the second straight world championships. Valerie Maltais of Canada was third behind the two South Koreans.

In the men's competition, Viktor Ahn of Russia became the overall champion. The previous five men's champions had all come from South Korea, but Park Se-yeong, the top South Korean this year, finished fifth overall.

Ahn had finished fourth in the 500ｍ and the 1,500ｍ earlier, but on Sunday he won the 1,000ｍ and then captured the 3,000ｍ superfinal for the overall crown with 63 total points.

J.R. Celski of the United States finished second with 55 points, followed by Charles Hamelin of Canada at 48 points.

Ahn was born Ahn Hyun-soo in South Korea but became a Russian citizen in late 2011 to extend a career once disrupted by injuries.

Ahn won three gold medals in Sochi for his adopted country, becoming the most decorated Olympic short tracker in history with six career gold medals.

This was Ahn's first world overall title since 2007. He had won five straight titles while competing for South Korea starting in 2003. (Yonhap)