Head Adverts

Login / REGISTER

Interactive

Blog
Forum
Poll Results
Quotes & Stats
Sporting Calendar
Spotlight

The Magazine

This Issue

Shopping Cart

VirtueMart
Your Cart is currently empty.

Sport Polls

Will Sonny Bill play for the AB's come RWC?
 
Koreans dominate first day of figure skating PDF Print E-mail
Saturday, 29 August 2009 00:00
DUNEDIN, New Zealand (August 29, 2009) – The country’s first international ice figure skating competition got underway yesterday at the 100% Pure New Zealand Winter Games and by the end of the day Korean skaters were the top point scorers in all four events held at the Dunedin Ice Stadium.

Korean Min Seok Kim leads the Men’s Junior section with his outstanding performance in the short programme with a score of 61.73.Kihara Ryuichi from Japan is in second place with 49.63 and Simon Hardy from Australia is in third place with 33.23.

In the Junior Women’s short programme, despite a fall during her routine, Hyeon Jeong Kim from Korea outclassed seven other competitors with her leading score of 43.72.  Australia’s  National Junior Champion, Jaimee Nobbs  is in second place with a 38.84 score. Ariel Nadas was the highest scoring New Zealander with 26.37 and is presently sitting in fifth place.

Leading the Women’s Novice section after the short programme is So Youn Park from Korea whose total score of 44.50 was almost 14 points ahead of the closest competitor, Madeline Parker from New Zealand. Leading the Men’s Novice section is Korean Doug Won Lee with a point score of 48.11 his closest rival is Australian Oliver Porter with a score of 38.30.

The best skaters from Korea, Japan, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand have been attracted to this three-day competition, an event, which is providing the competitors with a great build up for next year’s Winter Olympics in Canada.

And while the Koreans have impressed with their performance on ice, the Korean Team Management have been so impressed with the international standard of the facilities at the Dunedin Ice Stadium they have expressed interest in retuning to Dunedin next year to train at the Stadium for three months.

The President of the New Zealand Ice Skating Association, Sandra Williamson Ledley, says the standard and maintenance of the ice in Dunedin has impressed all the international judges. “There’s been a fantastic response to the facilities here and the ice is considered to be up with the best in the world.”

On Saturday the Novice section will compete in the free skating and the Senior’s Men and Women will compete in the short programmes.  The Junior and Senior Men and Women’s free skating will be held on Sunday and the day will end with the medal presentation ceremonies.

< Prev   Next >
 
Banner