BEIJING– South Korean figure skaters You Young and Kim Ye-lim made solid Olympic debuts in Beijing on Tuesday, delivering mostly clean performances in the short program to put themselves in the top 10.
You scored 70.34 points to rank sixth after the first phase of the competition at Capital Indoor Stadium. Kim had 67.78 points to place ninth heading into Thursday’s free skate.
Kamila Valieva of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), cleared to compete despite failing a doping test, predictably led the way with 82.16 points. She’s closely pursued by her fellow Russian, Anna Shcherbakova, who had 80.20 points.
Kaori Sakamoto of Japan holds the bronze medal position at 79.84 points, 9.50 points ahead of You.
In speed skating, South Korea finished sixth in the men’s team pursuit. The trio of Lee Seung-hoon, Kim Min-seok and Chung Jae-won had hoped to grab their second straight medal together after winning silver in 2018, but they were eliminated in the quarterfinals Sunday. In Final C held Tuesday at the National Speed Skating Oval, with Park Seong-hyeon replacing Lee, South Korea lost to Canada by 13.38 seconds at 3:53.77.
At Yanqing National Sliding Centre in Yanqing, northwestern Beijing, South Korea’s two tandems finished well off the podium in the men’s two-man bobsleigh competition.
Won Yun-jong and Kim Jin-su ended in 19th place with a combined time of 4:01.24 after four runs.
Suk Young-jin and Kim Hyeong-geun finished in 24th place. They had a time of 3:01.26 after three runs and didn’t qualify for the last race, which was only open to the top 20 teams after three runs.
Source: Yonhap News Agency