From left, Kim Jun-ho, Cha Min-kyu and Cho Sang-hyeok of Korea compete in the men's team sprint speed skating event at the Asian Winter Games at Heilongjiang Ice Events Training Center Speed Skating Oval in Harbin, China, Feb. 10. Yonhap

Korea raced to silver in the inaugural men's team sprint speed skating event at the Asian Winter Games in China on Monday.

The trio of Kim Jun-ho, Cha Min-kyu and Cho Sang-hyeok clocked 1:20.48 in the three-lap, 1,200 meter race at Heilongjiang Ice Events Training Center Speed Skating Oval in Harbin.

China won the gold medal in 1:19.22, and Japan grabbed the bronze in 1:20.72.

The team sprint event made its Asian Games debut in Harbin, and Korea won the women's gold Sunday.

With three skaters each, teams start the race simultaneously on each side of the track. The leadoff skater leaves the track after one lap, and the next skater peels off after the second lap. It's up to the third and the final skater to finish off the race.

Korea and China went toe to toe in the second pairing. As the first skater, Kim Jun-ho kept Korea ahead of China in the early portion, and Cha helped Korea maintain its slim lead. Cho wasn't able to hold on over the final stretch, however, as China beat Korea by 1.45 seconds over the final 400m.

Korea was in second place with Japan and Kazakhstan coming up in the final pairing. And Korea stayed there as Japan came home 0.24 second slower than Korea and Kazakhstan was more than two seconds back of Korea.

This was Kim's third medal in Harbin. He had won bronze medals in the men's 100m Saturday and 500m earlier Monday.

With one more day of speed skating races left, Korea has won three gold, three silver and two bronze medals on the oval so far. (Yonhap)