Sports Briefs

SPEED SKATING

Lee Seung-hoon will not compete in 1,500 meters

Lee Seung-hoon decided not to compete in the men’s 1,500-meter race at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

Lee will still compete in four other events - the 5,000-meter, 10,000-meter, mass start and team pursuit races. Lee’s coaching staff decided that competing in all five events would be too physically taxing, so suggested he not race the 1,500 meters. Lee’s name was excluded from the final entry announced by the PyeongChang organizing committee on Monday.

Instead of Lee, Joo Hyeong-joon will compete in the men’s 1,500-meter race.

From the four ISU World Cup races this season, the Korean men’s speed skating team has earned five places - in all five mid- to long-distance races - at the Winter Olympics.

Lee is a medal contender in long distance speed skating, having won a gold medal in the men’s 10,000-meter and silver in the men’s 5,000-meter races at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. As Lee is ranked first this season in the mass start race, which is returning to the Olympics for the first time since 1932, Korea is expecting an additional medal.

By Kang Yoo-rim

FOOTBALL

Women’s football team to compete in Algarve Cup

The Korea women’s national football team will compete at an international tournament in Portugal in March to fine-tune their preparations for Asia’s top competition the following month, the national football governing body said Tuesday.

The Korea Football Association (KFA) said Korea will participate in the Algarve Cup to be held between Feb. 28 and March 7. Twelve teams will be divided into three groups in a round-robin competition and will later play placement matches based on their points.

Korea, ranked 14th in the latest FIFA rankings, is in Group B, along with fifth-ranked Canada, 10th-ranked Sweden and 25th-ranked Russia.

The Taeguk Ladies will open the tournament against Russia at Albufeira Municipal Stadium on Feb. 28 and will face Sweden at Bela Vista Municipal Stadium on March 2. They’ll wrap up the group stage against Canada at Albufeira Municipal Stadium on March 5.

Group A features Australia, China, Norway and Portugal, while Group C is comprised of Denmark, Iceland, Japan and the Netherlands.

This is the first time that Korea will compete at the Algarve Cup, which was inaugurated in 1994.

For Korea, the invitational tournament in Portugal will be a tuneup for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Women’s Cup, which will take place in Jordan in April. Korea is in the same group with Australia, Japan and Vietnam.

The KFA said the women’s team, led by head coach Yoon Duk-yeo, will start their training late next month at the National Football Center in Paju, north of Seoul. The KFA said that since the Algrave Cup falls on FIFA’s international match calendar, those who are in foreign clubs, such as Ji So-yun of Chelsea Ladies, will be able to play for the national team.

Yonhap