Korea’s only female ski jumper makes the cut

Park Guy-lim, Korea’s only female ski jumper, qualifi es for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics by earning her fi rst World Cup points.

Park Guy-lim, Korea’s lone female ski jumper, earned a spot at the upcoming Winter Olympics on Wednesday with her first-ever World Cup point.

Park, 17, had a combined score of 67.1 points in the women’s normal hill event at the International Ski Federation (FIS) Ski Jumping World Cup in Pyeongchang, some 180 kilometers (112 miles) east of Seoul in Gangwon. Her performance put her 30th among 32 competitors at Alpensia Ski Jumping Centre, but it was enough to give her first World Cup point.’

The FIS awards race points to the top 30 finishers: 100 points to the winner, 80 for the runner-up, 60 for third place, and all the way to one point for 30th place.

Park, who made her international debut in 2015, was making her first FIS World Cup appearance. Park is able to compete at the PyeongChang Olympics with the host nation’s quota, but the ski jumper earlier said she wants to qualify for the Winter Olympics on her own by winning a World Cup point.

Under the FIS rule, athletes who have earned at least one FIS World Cup point during their career are eligible for selection by their Olympic body.

The women’s title went to Yuki Ito of Japan, who scored 234.4 points. The 22-year-old beat her compatriot and competition favorite Sara Takanashi by 9.5 points to claim her fourth victory of the season. Ema Klinec of Slovenia was third at 218.7.

Despite her runner-up finish, Takanashi clinched her fourth overall World Cup title. With two World Cup events remaining, the 20-year-old now has 1,275 World Cup points for this season, 247 more than Ito.

Takanashi will try to tie Austria’s Gregor Schlierenzauer for the most ski jumping World Cup wins at 53 on Thursday, as the competition continues with another normal hill event at the same venue.’

On the men’s large hill event, Stefan Kraft claimed his fourth World Cup victory of the season.

Jumps of 138 meters and 137.5 meters gave the Austrian a combined score of 293.5, which easily bested German jumper Andreas Wellinger’s 279.8.

Kamil Stoch of Poland took third at 268.2. He also maintained his lead in the World Cup rankings with 1,240 points, but is now just 100 points ahead of Kraft.

Korea’s three veteran ski jumpers - Choi Heung-chul, Choi Seo-u and Kim Hyun-ki - were absent, as they failed to finish inside the top 40 in the qualifying stage on Tuesday.

The FIS Ski Jumping World Cup is one of the test events for the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics. It is also the first ski jumping World Cup hosted by Korea.

Yonhap