Son grabs gold at gymnastics world championship

Son Yeon-jae

By Baek Byung-yeul

Rhythmic gymnast Son Yeon-jae won her first title at the first World Cup of the season in Finland, Sunday night (KST).

At the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Cup in Espoo, Finland, Son earned the gold medal in the ball event with a score of 18.45. The 22-year-old Korean was followed by Dina Averina of Russia with 18.1 points and Ganna Rizatdinova of Ukraine with 18.

It was her International Federation of Gymnastics (FIG) World Cup gold medal since she raked in four gold medals in the individual all-around, clubs, ball and ribbon events at the Lisbon World Cup in April 2014.

After the event, Son expressed her satisfaction with the results.

“I am so happy to put the Korean national flag on the highest spot in the arena once again in 2016,” Son wrote on social media after the awards ceremony. “Thank you all. I wrapped up the first World Cup with good results. I will keep fighting until the Olympics.”

Prior to the ball event, Son captured a bronze medal in the hoop event. Performing to the soundtrack of French film “Fanfan,” Son received 18.4 points, following Russians Ganna Rizatdinova with 18.55 and Aleksandra Soldatova with 18.500.

She also won in the individual all-around event on Saturday (KST), posting a career-high score with 73.550points, 0.2 points behind 17-year-old rising star Soldatova. Her previous highest score was 72.964 points for a silver medal at the 2016 Moscow Grand Prix a week ago.

Though the Espoo competition missed three-time all-round world champion Yana Kudryavtseva and two-time all-round world silver medalist Margarita Mamun, Son edged out her possible Olympic competitors Rizatdinova and Melitina Staniouta.

Son was Korea’s first Olympian to advance into the individual all-around final at the 2012 London Olympics, placing fifth in the competition.