Kim and Jeong finish team sprint classic in last place

Olympic Sports

Published: 16 Feb. 2022, 21:07

Kim and Jeong finish team sprint classic in last place

Kim Min-woo in action during the men's team sprint classic semifinals at National Cross-Country Centre in Zhangjiakou on Wednesday. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

Jeong Jong-won in action during the men's team sprint classic semifinals at National Cross-Country Centre in Zhangjiakou on Wednesday. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

Kim Min-woo and Jeong Jong-won rounded off their first-ever Olympics with a 25th place finish in the men’s team sprint classic semifinal on Wednesday, crossing the finish line with a time of 22:56.16.

A total of 25 countries were divided into two groups for the semifinals and Korea was placed in the first group alongside 12 other countries. Korea’s time of 22:56.16 put them at the bottom of the table.

As the top four teams from both heats advance to the final automatically and two additional spots are given to the fastest two remaining teams from either semifinal, Korea missed out on a chance to compete in the final.

The team sprint classic is a two-person sprint relay, with each skier completing six laps on the course, two laps at a time using the classical method where the athletes’ skies move back and forth in a parallel motion inside parallel grooves of snow.

Kim was first up for Korea, passing the race over to Jeong with a time of 3:30.0. Jeong then finished his two laps with a time of 3:31.5.

Kim recorded a time of 3:54.9 in his third and fourth lap, then passed it over once again to Jeong, who finished his next two laps with a time of 3:45.4.

Kim recorded a time of 4:03.7 in his last two laps while Jeong recorded a time of 4:10.6, crossing the finish line with a total time of 22:56.16 that put Korea at 12th place in the first semifinal group, and 25th in total.

Kim and Jeong had competed in the men’s 15-kilometer classic race on Friday last week, with Kim finishing 79th and Jeong 82nd.

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