Yu-na Wins Bronze Medal, While Asada Tops Worlds
By Jonathan Sanfilippo
Staff Reporter
There were times during this week's World Figure Skating Championships that Kim Yu-na's hip bothered her so much that she considered dropping out.
``I thought I might have to give up,'' Kim told The Associated Press.
Instead, Kim continued to skate, battling through her hip injury to land several difficult combinations. The 17-year-old South Korean star's persistence earned her a bronze medal for the second year in a row, as she finished behind Japan's Mao Asada and Italy's Carolina Kostner in the women's singles competition on Thursday at the Scandinavium arena in Gothenburg, Sweden.
``Considering my bad condition, I think a bronze is not a bad result,'' Kim said.
After tallying 59.85 points to rank fifth in the short program on Wednesday, Kim improved her place by compiling 123.38 points, the most of any participant, in the free skating program on Thursday to finish with a total of 183.23.
Kim delighted the crowd of 9,431 with a variety of combinations in her free skating program, while skating to the ``Miss Saigon'' soundtrack. Her routine included a triple flip-triple toe loop, a triple lutz-double toe-double loop, a double axel-triple toe loop, a triple salchow and a pair of double axels. The only blemish came with a mistake on her second lutz.
``Fortunately, I got a bronze medal,'' Kim said.
Earning the bronze is the latest achievement in a stellar career for Kim, who's become one of South Korea's most popular athletes. She won the World Junior Championships in 2006 and the Grand Prix Finals each of the past two years in addition to her two bronze finishes at the World Championships.
But for the past few months, Kim has been hampered with an injury to her left hip, which limited her practices and caused her to skip the Four Continents Championships, held in February in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province.
Now that she's done competing in Gothenburg, Kim is focused on regaining her health.
``I know that it is important to rest as well and not only train very hard, and if I feel a little pain now, I should take care of it immediately,'' Kim said on the International Skating Union (ISU)'s Web site. "First of all, I will go to Korea and take care of my injury for two months, and after that, I will go to Canada and work on two new programs and improve what I thought was my weakness this time.''