Bobsledders rank No. 6 in two-man race, Min Yu-ra to dance to 'Arirang' in free dance

Korea’s Won Yun-jong and Seo Young-woo race during their PyeongChang Winter Games two-man bobsleigh heat 4 race at the Olympic Sledding Center, Monday. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

By Nam Hyun-woo

Korea’s bobsleigh tandem of Won Yun-jong and Seo Young-woo ranked No. 6 in two-man races after clocking 3:17.40 after four heat races.

Canada’s Justin Kripps and Alexander Kopacz, and Germany’s Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis tied for the gold after they both clocked 3:16.86 for four heat races.

The Korean duo posted 49.39 seconds in the second run, 49.15 seconds in the third and 49.36 in the final run, but could not overcome their lower-than-expected 49.50 seconds in the first run a day earlier.

Despite remaining at sixth in the two-man race, their time is the best for the Koreans at the Winter Olympics.

On Feb. 24, they will team up with Kim Dong-hyun and Jun Jung-lin in the four-man bobsleigh.

In figure skating, Korea’s ice dancing pair of Min Yu-ra and Alexander Gamelin made it into the free dance program, after making it to No. 16 with a score of 61.22 in the short dance at the Gangneung Ice Arena.

Min suffered a wardrobe malfunction in her team event short program earlier at the Games, but “sewed it up” herself this time, as she wrote on her Twitter account, as well as displaying clean routines to “Samba, Rhumba, Samba.”

While they made a tight performance this time, another wardrobe mishap took place when French ice dancer Gabriella Papadakis was doing her routine. Though Papadakis and her partner Guillaume Cizeron were affected by the malfunction, they managed to finish the short program at No. 2, scoring 81.93.

As the Min-Gamelin pair advances to the free dance program, their much-touted free program of “Arirang” will be featured.

The song caused a controversy as its lyrics contains Korea’s easternmost island Dokdo, which Japan continues to claim.

As the International Olympic Committee bans political statements by Olympians, they decided to remove the part about Dokdo.

“We chose a very special song for the Korean audience especially for this competition. The fact that we made it and we’re able to do this performances is absolutely amazing,” Min said after her short dance program.

In freestyle skiing, Korea’s Jang Yu-jin failed to advance to the women’s ski halfpipe final run, after she was ranked No. 18 out of 24 skiers.

At Phoenix Park, Jang scored 64.40 in the first run and 60.00 in the second. As only the top 12 skiers advance to the finals based on their best runs, Jang did not make it into the next round.

Cassie Sharpe of Canada led the qualification round with 93.40, followed by Mari Martinod of France with 92.00 and Brita Sigourney of the U.S. with 90.60.