The rock stops here
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Yun Sung-bin jumps onto his sled during the men’s skeleton competition at the Sochi Winter Olympics at the Sanki Sliding Center, Saturday (KST). Yun finished 16th, the highest ever for a Korean Olympian. / Yonhap
Consecutive losses oust Korean curlers from semifinal
By Kwon Ji-youn
The Korean hopes for a Cinderella run in women’s curling are officially dead.
At the Sochi Olympics, the team of Kim Ji-sun, Gim Un-chi, Shin Mi-sung, Lee Seul-bee and Um Ji-min consecutively lost to Britain and Denmark and dropped to ninth place in a field of 10 with two wins and five losses as of Sunday.
Even if they win their remaining games against the United States and Canada, the team will not make the semifinal under the round-robin format, where the 10 teams play each other once and the top four advance to the playoffs.
It could be argued that the Koreans played better than their record indicates. However, their lack of experience held them back at critical moments, as they failed to protect their early leads against both Britain and Denmark.
Against Britain, Korea took a 2-0 lead after the first end, impressively executing a double take-out and delivering their last stone to the button.
However, the British were quick to strike back in the second end, scoring three points while deftly removing the Korean stones in the scoring area.
Britain scored two more points after four and five and seemed to be building the momentum for an easy victory. However, the Koreans moved back within striking distance after ending the sixth end with two points to make it 5-4.
Koreans took the lead late into the game, by scoring two points each in ends eight and nine. However, Britain finished the game in impressive style, scoring three points in the 10th and final end to seal a 10-8 win.
Against Denmark, the Koreans protected a narrow lead before melting down in the sixth and seventh ends. The Koreans’ poor positioning allowed Denmark to clear their pair of stones on the button and score 2 points to take a 3-2 lead after the sixth end.
The Koreans continued with their mistakes in the seventh end, with Gim wasting a couple of late shots that failed to take out the Denmark stones and eventually allowed their opponents to score three points to make it 6-2. They never recovered and ended the game in a 7-4 loss.
Before entering their games against Britain and Denmark, Korea had defeated Japan in their Olympic opener and the hosts Russia, but fell to regional rivals China and European powers Sweden and Switzerland.
Canada and Sweden are the leaders of the table and have virtually secured their spots in the semifinal.
Korea's Kim Ji-sun, left, shouts instructions to her teammates during the team's match against Demnark at the Ice Cube Curling Center in Sochi, Russia, on Sunday. Korea lost 7-4. / Yonhap
Yun Sung-bin makes history
Yun Sung-bin wrote history Saturday night, placing 16th in the men’s skeleton with a total time of three minutes and 49.57 seconds, a Korean record.
Yun placed 15th in the first heat and sixth in the second, clocking 1:54.56, 2.57 seconds slower than Alexander Tretiakov of Russia on Friday. On Saturday, he placed 20th in heat three and 15th in heat five, wrapping up in 16th place overall with a time 5.28 seconds short of Tretiakov’s. Silver went to Martins Dukurs of Latvia and bronze went to Matthew Antoine of the United States.
It is an incredible feat, as it has only been two years since Yun became a skeleton racer. In three tries, he made the national team, and flourished under the guidance of Cho In-ho, who was the only skeleton athlete to take part in the 2010 Vancouver Games. Yun won a silver medal and two bronzes at the America Cup competitions in November 2013, and two silvers at the Confederation Cup event in December. He finished first at this year’s Confederation Cup event at Whistler, Canada, which represented the country’s first-ever skeleton gold medal in an international event.
Yun’s goal had been to make the top 15 at the Sochi Games and become a serious contender by the 2018 PyeongChang Games. A notch short, but he has four years to make that up.
Ski-jumpers fail to make final round
Though Choi Seo-u and Choi Heung-chul made it past the qualification round in the men’s large hill individual competition, the two Korean ski jumpers failed to make it to the final Saturday, placing 39th and 44th, respectively. Only the top 30 skiers advance to the final round.
Choi Seo-u hit the 122-meter mark but received only 51 judge’s points to finish with 106.4 points overall. Choi Heung-chul jumped 121.5 meters and totaled 99 points.
Kamil Stoch of Poland clinched the gold, becoming only the third jumper to win double golds in the same Winter Games. Noriaki Kasai of Japan came in second with 278.7 points and Peter Prevc of Slovania came in third with 274.8 points.