South Korea's best Olympic medal hopeful in skeleton will battle his idol for the world No. 1 ranking at an Olympic rehearsal at home this week.
Yun Sung-bin, currently No. 2 in men's skeleton, will be the home-crowd favorite at the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation World Cup starting Friday at Alpensia Sliding Center in PyeongChang, host of the 2018 Winter Olympics located some 180 kilometers east of Seoul. It will be the eighth and final World Cup race of the season, and also the first Olympic test event at Alpensia.
In this file photo taken on Feb. 7, 2017, South Korean skeleton racer Yun Sung-bin poses for photos after arriving at Incheon International Airport. (Yonhap)
Yun trails Martins Dukurs of Latvia by just 24 points -- 1,437 to 1,413 -- coming into PyeongChang's skeleton races on Friday. The medalists will be determined after two runs.
The 23-year-old South Korean has said he looks up to Dukurs, one of the most decorated skeleton racers in history, and the two have been going back and forth from the very start of the season.
At seven previous World Cups, Yun has picked up a gold, two silver and two bronze medals, while Dukurs, a five-time world champion and a seven-time reigning World Cup overall winner, has won three gold and one silver medals.
Yun threw down the gauntlet by winning the season's first World Cup in Whistler, Canada, in December, while Dukurs only finished in fourth.
Yun lost his No. 1 ranking with a fifth-place finish on Jan. 14 in Winterberg, Germany, where Dukurs picked up his first victory of the season. Dukurs won again the following week in St. Moritz, Switzerland, with Yun finishing second.
Then on Jan. 28, Yun regained his top ranking by finishing second at the World Cup in Konigssee, Germany, as Dukurs stumbled to sixth place.
Dukurs returned to first place with a victory in early February, as Yun finished third in the same World Cup stop in Igls, Austria.
Yun even skipped the world championships last month so that he could get more reps at the new Alpensia track.
No South Korean has won an overall World Cup title in skeleton.
The venue is only the second artificial ice track in Asia after Nagano, Japan. It measures at 1,376 meters and drops 117 meters from start to finish.
In addition to men's skeleton, women's skeleton (Friday), women's bobsleigh (Saturday), two-man bobsleigh (Saturday) and four-man bobsleigh (Sunday) will be contested at Alpensia.
In two-man bobsleigh, pilot Won Yun-jong and brakesman Seo Young-woo have fallen on hard times this season, after winning South Korea's first overall title last season.
The two have yet to win a race this season, and are sitting in fourth place with 1,128 points, nearly 200 behind the leading tandem led by Francesco Friedrich of Germany. The South Koreans, in particular, have finished outside the top 10 at their two previous World Cup stops, as they've struggled to adjust to their new sled. (Yonhap)
