Korean speedskaters well out of medals in men's 1,000m
Cha Min-kyu of South Korea competes during the men's speedskating 1,000m finals at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, Feb. 18. AP-Yonhap
South Korean speedskaters Cha Min-kyu and Kim Min-seok finished way outside medal contention in the men's 1,000m race at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics on Friday.
In their final races at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing, Cha finished 18th out of 30 at 1:09.69. Kim was further back in 24th place at 1:10.08.
Thomas Krol of the Netherlands won gold in 1:07.92, 0.40 second ahead of Laurent Dubreuil of Canada. Haavard Holmefjord Lorentzen of Norway took home bronze in 1:08.48.
Not all is lost for the Korean skaters in Beijing: Cha won silver earlier in the 500m, and Kim took bronze in the 1,500m.
In the 1,000m, Cha posted the fourth-fastest split time over his first 200m at 16.29 seconds. But he never maintained that speed. He needed 25.44 seconds to cover his next 400m, and he came down the final 400m in 27.96 seconds.
Kim was the third-slowest skater out of the gate in 17.16 seconds. He went from 200m to 600m in 25.42 seconds, and he came home in 27.50 seconds.
With one more day of speedskating races left here, those two are the only medals South Korea has won at the oval so far. (Yonhap)