Kim Myeong-seok Makes a Narrow Miss

Kim Myeong-seok broke the Korean record in the 10,000 meter speed-skating event at the Winter Universiade Torino 2007, winning a bronze medal.

Kim Myeong-seok passed the goal line in 13:44:18 in the men’s 10,000 meters speed-skating race held at Oval Lingotto, Torino, Italy, and finished third behind Mark Ooijevaar (the Netherlands, 13:28:42) and Artjom Belousov (Russia, 13:44:00).

Kim Myeong-seok is the first Korean skater to win a medal in this event in the international games excluding the Asian Games. He also broke the Korean record he himself had made in the 10,000 meters race (13:51:28) in December 2005 by 7.1 seconds. Kim Myeong-seok ranked first in pre-race predictions, but fell to third when Ooijevaar and Belousov made it to the goal line first, breaking the Olympic record.

In the meantime, 500m gold-medalist Lee Sang-hwa (Korea National Sport University, Hwikyung Women’s High School) ended up ranking 10th in the women’s 1000m tournament (1:19:10). As of January 23, Korea is seventh overall with two gold medals, six silver medals, and five bronze medals following Japan (three gold medals, five silver medals, and three bronze medals).

kimsk@donga.com