Korea finishes sixth in men's team pursuit

From front, Chung Jae-won, Park Seong-hyeon and Kim Min-seok race in the men's team pursuit final C on Wednesday at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing. [NEWS1]

The Korean men's speed skating team lost the team pursuit Final C to Canada on Tuesday at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing, crossing the finish line with a time of 3:53.77 to take sixth place overall in the competition.

Korea raced against Canada in Final C, which decides fifth and sixth place, after failing to reach the semifinals on Sunday. In the quarterfinal race, Korea crossed the finish line with a time of 3:41.89, finishing sixth out of eight countries after the four groups of two countries finished their races.

For the Final C race, Beijing 1,500-meter bronze medalist Kim Min-seok was joined by Chung Jae-won and Park Seong-hyeon. Park replaced Lee Seung-hoon, who competed in the quarterfinals on Sunday.

Team pursuit involves three skaters per country racing together both against another team and the clock.

Park started out the race with Kim taking the lead next, then Chung took over, crossing the finish line with a time of 3:53.77. Korea was faster in the first lap but Canada took back the lead in the second lap then was able to widen that lead, almost catching up with Korea in the last lap, crossing the finish line 13.38 seconds ahead of Korea.

Also on Tuesday, Norway competed against the Netherlands in the first semifinal, earning a spot in the gold medal match. Russia earned the other final A spot after beating the United States. Norway later went on to win the gold medal, Russia taking silver and United States taking bronze.

Kim will next compete in the men’s 1,000-meter race on Friday, looking for his second medal at the Beijing Games. Lee and Chung will join Kim in the men’s mass start on Saturday.

BY YUN SO-HYANG [yun.sohyang@joongang.co.kr]