Sports Briefs

BASEBALL

Choo Shin-soo gets on base for 18th consecutive game

Choo Shin-soo of the Texas Rangers got on base for his 18th consecutive game during the match against the New York Yankees at Yankees Stadium in New York on Saturday, handing the Rangers a 8-1 victory over the Yankees.

Choo appeared as the Rangers’ second batter and right fielder, recording one hit while scoring two runs. Choo got off to a slow start, striking out in his first two appearances in the first and third. In the next to appearances, in the fifth and seventh, Choo continued to be silent on the batter’s box.

In the ninth inning, Choo finally showed some action, making a two-run double against Tyler Clippard. Though Choo managed to get on base, his batting average slightly decreased from 0.258 to 0.256 as of Saturday.

By Kang Yoo-rim

TRACK AND FIELD

Kim Kuk-young breaks his own 100m record

Korean sprinter Kim Kuk-young broke his own national record in the men’s 100m dash on Sunday.

Kim clocked 10.13 seconds in the 100m semifinals at the KBS Cup National Athletics Championships in Jeongseon, Gangwon. He bettered his own previous record, set in July 2015 at the Summer Universiade, by 0.03 seconds.

Kim has now broken the national 100m record four times and has improved from 10.31 in June 2010 to 10.13.

Kim is scheduled to run in the final at the same competition later Sunday.

Despite setting the national mark, Kim is still shy of the world championships’ qualifying time of 10.12 seconds.

SWIMMING

Park Tae-hwan takes 200m freestyle victory

Korean swimmer Park Tae-hwan has picked up his second victory in his world championships tune-up.

Park captured the 200m freestyle title at the Sette Colli Trophy at Stadio del Nuoto in Rome on Saturday (local time), with a time of 1:46.89.

Nicholas Grainger of Britain was in second place with 1:48.30, followed by another British swimmer, Duncan Scott.

Park is gearing up for the FINA World Aquatics Championships in Budapest starting July 23. He set up a training camp in Rome earlier this month.

He will make his first world championships appearance since 2011 in Shanghai, where he won the second of his two world titles in the 400m freestyle.

On Friday, Park won the 400m freestyle, beating two medalists from last year’s Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

Park’s 200m time in Rome is tied for the 10th-fastest time of 2017. Park’s season-best is 1:46.71 from the Arena Pro Swim Series in Atlanta last month.

Sun Yang of China owns the fastest 200m freestyle time this year with 1:44.91.

In Rome, Park is also scheduled to compete in the 100m and 800m freestyle.

Yonhap