By Kang Seung-woo
Staff Reporter
South Korea's figure skating prodigy Kim Yu-na has confronted something to hammer out before the World Figure Skating Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden, in March.
It is not that the 17-year-old is laboring to learn a new high-level skill, but ― seemingly much harder ― she's trying to decide which local competition she will participate in.
Prior to the World Championships, there are two local contests ― the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships and the National Winter Sports Festival.
The Four Continents event is scheduled on Feb. 11-17 in PyeongChang, Gangwon Province, and the other will begin in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, two days after the earlier meet's completion.
The Four Continents competition, where figure skaters from Asia, the Americas, Africa and Australia perform, is an annual figure skating competition, which was established in 1999.
The Korea Skating Union (KSU) will host this event for the third time in Korea, following Jeongju in 2002 and Gangneung in 2005.
Figure skating power Japan has already decided to field its high-profile stars, including three-time winner Fumie Suguri, world champion Ando Miki and Kim's rival Mao Asada.
Along with them, other top performers' participation is expected to make it a good warm-up for Kim, the defending two-time World Grand Prix winner, to test what she has done and prepare for the Sweden meet.
However, Kim finds herself in a situation that she cannot easily drop out of the National Festival, which will be held in Gyeonggi Province, her native place that has supported her into stardom.
If she opts to skate, she will be drawn into the female high school division, which has only two competitors. She was the only participant in last year's contest.
``We're considering Kim participating in either of them not to affect her preparation for the World Championships,'' Kim's agency, IB Sports, said.
``It requires at least 20 hours to gear up for the World Championships. A long stay in Korea can take some of her time due to jet lag and fatigue.''