speed skater-world championships

▲ In this Associated Press file photo from Feb. 17, 2023, Kim Min-sun of South Korea competes in the women's 500-meter race at the International Skating Union World Cup Speed Skating at Arena Lodowa in Tomaszow Mazowiecki, Poland. (Yonhap)

speed skater-world championships

Speed skater Kim Min-sun falls just shy of 1st world medal

By Yoo Jee-ho

SEOUL, March 4 (Yonhap) -- South Korean speed skater Kim Min-sun has finished fourth in her main event at the world championships, coming up achingly short of her first career medal at the competition.

Kim ended in fourth place in the women's 500 meters at the International Skating Union (ISU) World Speed Skating Championships in Heerenveen, the Netherlands, on Friday (local time) with a time of 37.56 seconds. She was only 0.02 second behind the bronze medalist, Jutta Leerdam of the Netherlands.

Another Dutch skater, Femke Kok, won the gold medal in 37.28 seconds, with Vanessa Herzog of Austria taking home silver in 37.33 seconds.

A medal would have been an icing on the cake for a dominant season by Kim, who won the 500m title at the first five out of six ISU World Cup races before finishing in second place in the World Cup season finale.

The world championships are being held at Thialf, which also hosted the second World Cup of the season in November. Kim won the gold then in 37.21 seconds, which would have been good enough for the world title Friday.

The fourth-place finish was still a career best for Kim, whose previous high was 15th.

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