Shim Suk-hee fails to qualify in 1500m short track
Korean short track speed skater Shim Suk-hee, 21, failed to qualify for the women’s 1,500-meter semifinals at the PyeongChang Olympics after falling in her heat Saturday. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
Shim Suk-hee of South Korea crashes during her women's 1500 meters short track speedskating heat in the Gangneung Ice Arena at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Gangneung, Saturday. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
By Baek Byung-yeul
Korean short track speed skater Shim Suk-hee, 21, failed to qualify for the women’s 1,500-meter semifinals at the PyeongChang Olympics after falling in her heat Saturday.
At the Gangneung Ice Arena, Shim finished last among six skaters in Heat 1 with a time of two minutes and 39.984 seconds.
She was racing fifth among six skaters but slipped and fell to the ice. Shim, who won the silver medal in this event at the 2014 Sochi Games, was one of the strong gold medal hopefuls for the host country.
Other Korean skaters -- Choi Min-jeong, 19, and Kim A-rang, 22, -- qualified for the semifinals.
Kim finished first in Heat 4 after clocking 2:20.891 and world No. 1 Choi also won the race in Heat 6 after posting a time of 2:24.595.
Only the top three skaters in each heat advance to the semifinals.