Sports Briefs

BASEBALL

Moon Kyu-hyun joins Lotte Giants for another two years

The Lotte Giants signed their first free agent for next season on Wednesday, sealing a 1 billion won ($898,000) deal with infielder Moon Kyu-hyun for two years, with an option to extend for another year.

Moon started with the Giants in 2002 and has a career batting average of 0.247 in 863 games. In the past three seasons, Moon has played in more than 100 games with the Giants and been a reliable defender for the team. During the most recent season, Moon had a 0.270 batting average with six home runs and 42 runs batted in.

“Since I’ve played only for the Giants in the past 16 years, I never thought of myself separately from the Giants,” Moon said. “I’m thankful to the Giants and to the fans for allowing me to play for the same team. I’ll work harder to be better at the position I play.”

CURLING

Korean women’s team heads to Asia championship finals

The Korean women’s curling team defeated Australia 14-2 to advance to the final round at the Pacific-Asia Curling Championships in Australia on Wednesday.

Throughout the tournament, Korea won all 11 games, including a round-robin, defeating Japan, China, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand.

In a field of six participating countries, only the top four teams from the round-robin can advance to the playoff, or semifinal. Prior to the game against Australia, Korea defeated Hong Kong, the fourth-ranked team, in the first playoff round.

Korea will play against Japan today for its second straight title in the event.

The men’s team advanced to the playoff round by finishing fourth out of nine teams.

By Kang Yoo-rim