Published : Jan. 17, 2022 - 10:12
In this Reuters photo, the South Korean four-man bobsleigh team, piloted by Won Yun-jong (front), takes a start during the International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation (IBSF) World Cup in St. Moritz, Switzerland, on Sunday. (Reuters)
The South Korean four-man bobsleigh team led by an Olympic medal-winning pilot had its best performance of the season in the final race before the Beijing Winter Games.
Won Yun-jong led his quartet to a 10th place finish at the season-ending International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation (IBSF) World Cup in St. Moritz, Switzerland, on Sunday (local time), with a combined time of 2:10.28 after two runs.
Won, who won a four-man bobsleigh silver at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, had hovered around mid-10s in seven previous World Cup events.
Won and Co. finished 14th in the overall standings.
A second South Korean team, led by Suk Young-jin, finished 24th in St. Moritz.
The South Korean team finished 0.90 second back of the Latvian team, piloted by Oskars Kibermanis.
Sunday's performance wrapped up the IBSF World Cup season, with South Korea having bagged just one medal -- a bronze by Jung Seung-gi in the men's skeleton on New Year's Eve. Jung finished ninth in the overall standings.
Yun Sung-bin, the 2018 Olympic men's skeleton champion, ended two spots behind Jung in the season rankings. Yun's up-and-down season featured a couple of sixth-place finishes, and he was all over the map otherwise -- ranking as low as 26th and as high as ninth.
In the two-man bobsleigh, Won finished 12th overall, on the strength of four consecutive top-10 finishes to close out the season.
South Korea has secured two Olympic quota places in the two-man bobsleigh and four-man bobsleigh, and one place in the women's monobob.
In skeleton, South Korea will send two men and one woman to the Feb. 4-20 Olympics.
These sliding athletes are scheduled to return home Tuesday and depart for Beijing on Jan. 31. (Yonhap)