Ladies of South Korea Show Their Growing Strength at Nationals

A large world-class senior ladies competition and an even larger junior ladies competition stood apart from what would otherwise be a very small event.

In three of the four disciplines, South Korea’s National Championships resembled those of most small countries. Their senior and junior men’s competitions this year in Gangneung had eight skaters each. For pairs and ice dance, they had only senior competitions, with three and two entries respectively. Even that much may be due to the influence of Kim Yu-na, Olympic champion, skating legend, and Korea’s biggest superstar of the past decade. She is now confirmed as retired, and the country’s skating scene, which pretty much formed due to her, is still trying to find its footing without her.

However, in her wake, Nationals is flooded by young ladies wanting to be her successor. Many of them were in infancy when she first attracted notice in 2006, and still remain too young to compete internationally even on the junior level. The senior ladies field at Korean Nationals had 35 competitors. The junior field had 50! Korea’s never had any qualification events for their Nationals. In the past, there’s never been a need. That may have to change in the future.

Not as many competitions were at stake here as usual, because in Korea, a lot of international assignments are decided by separate ranking competitions. But the one berth South Korea has for the World Championships in each discipline were, at least for those old enough for them. Berths to the World Junior Championships were also available, going to the skaters who topped the senior leaderboards but were too young to go to the senior Worlds.

Men

The senior men finished:

1. Cha Jun-hwan 238.07
2. Kim Jin-seo 216.16
3. Lee Si-hyeong 189.91
4. Se Jong-byun 182.81
5. Lee June-hyoung 178.56
6. An Geon-hyong 167.21
7. Park Sung-hoon 161.29
8. Lee Dong-won 160.90

There might have only been eight senior men, but they included Korea’s biggest newly born star. Cha Jun-hwan, as expected, won his first National title, and he did it by over twenty points. He had two solid skates, and included a quadruple salchow jump in his long program. The long also included a late fall, but it didn’t really matter. None of the other seven men could approach him technically or artistically. It’s unfortunate for them in general that he’s still too young to go to Worlds, which keeps South Korea from having any chance of getting two men’s berths in the Olympics next year.

Two men who were looking to make it to Worlds, Kim Jin-seo and Lee June-hyoung, were initially second and third respectively after the short. But even then Lee, who is struggling with back issues, underrotated and fell on his triple axel. Kim had gone clean, though he’d had to hold on to his jumps. Neither man had the best free program; they both had two doubled jumps and one singled one. But Lee also fell twice, still failing to rotate the axel, which dropped him to fifth. Kim wasn’t perfect on the axel himself, but he stayed up, and he also landed a quadruple toe loop. He held onto the silver and qualified for Worlds.

A much bigger battle ensued just below for who would join Cha Jun Hwan at Junior Worlds, as South Korea has two berths in each singles discipline there. After the short, Byun Se-jong and Lee Si-hyeong were within a point of each other and in third and fourth place. Neither is yet trying the triple axel, but Lee had tried a harder jump combination, and fallen on it, while Byun had stood up on everything. But in the free, Lee was the one to stay up on all his jumps, and this time he had three combinations harder than Byun’s equivalents. Byun’s jumps were weaker, and he stumbled on a couple of them. Lee shot past Byun, claiming the bronze and the second Junior Worlds spot.

The junior men finished:

1. Cha Young-hyun162.86
2. Kyeong Jae-seok 158.77
3. Kim Sang-woo 136.02
4. Kim Han-gil 123.19
5. Kim Min-hyuk 101.07
6. Jung Duk-hoon 99.47
7. Kim Hyun 97.20
8. Park Geon-woo 93.27

Another Cha, Cha Young-hyun, claimed the junior men’s title. He skated two mostly clean programs with good-looking triple jumps, although none of the eight junior men tried the triple axel. Silver medalist Kyeong Jae-seok skated a similar free, with perhaps a little more intensity, although he and bronze medalist Kim Sang-woo had both lost their jump combinations to falls in the short. In fact, Kim Sang-woo had to come back from fourth place against Kim Han-gil. But Kim Han-gil fell twice in his free, which helped Kim Sang-woo trounce him. However, there was another gap between him and the top two, largely thanks to some singled jumps.

Ladies

35 ladies might have made it to the competition ice, but the competition nonetheless took a blow when Park So-youn, who is pretty much Korea’s top senior lady internationally right now, had to pull out with an injured ankle, which needed surgery. She qualified for the Four Continents Championships, also to be held in Gangneung, in the November ranking competition, and hopes to rehab in time, especially since being unable to compete here cost her the chance to go to Worlds; the Korean federation made no provisions for her being injured.

The competition might have welcomed any Korean lady who met the federation’s requirements for each level, but they did employ cutoffs for the free skate. Because there were fewer than 48 competitors for the senior ladies, 24 of them skated the free.

The top 24 finished:

1. Lim Eun-soo 191.98
2. Kim Ye-lim 183.27
3. Kim Na-hyun 181.78
4. Choi Da-bin 181.48
5. You Young 180.88
6. Kam Yun-kyung 170.81
7. An So-hyun 168.68
8. Kim Ha-nul 167.56
9. Lee Hyun-soon 158.84
10. To Ji-hun 155.56
11. Jeon Gyo-hee 153.20
12. Son Suh-hyun 152.25
13. Kim Hae-jin 146.83
14. Noh Chae-eun 145.12
15. Lee Seo-young 145.05
16. Choi Yu-jin 143.03
17. Kwon Ye-na 141.94
18. Jeon Su-been 140.85
19. Kim Bo-young 137.20
20. Yoon Eun-su 136.61
21. Lee Ji-won 131.19
22. Kang Soo-min 126.06
23. Kim Se-na 120.62
24. Youn Ha-rim 112.46

The competition was one worthy of highlighting any National Championships. In the short program, four ladies nailed their skates, all including high-quality triple-triple combinations, and were divided by a less than four and a half points at the top. The highest presentation scores of the field helped Lee Eun-soo take the lead immediately. She followed that up with a flawless rendition of Miss Saigon in the free; she was no doubt very influenced by Kim Yu-na’s from 2008. Kim might have been far better artistically, but Lee wasn’t too shabby herself. She finished in tears, and distanced the field, winning by nearly nine points.

Not old enough for Worlds, she will instead go to Junior Worlds, along with silver medalist Kim Ye-lim. She claimed second in the short, where she was the only one of the top five to do her triple-triple, a triple lutz-triple toe, in the program’s second half. She opened her free skate with the combination, and did most of it well. But she underrotated and fell on her double axel-triple toe, which left her fourth in the segment. She held on to silver by a point and a half.

The Worlds berth ended up being between Park’s Four Continents teammates Kim Na-hyun and Choi Da-bin. Kim is also struggling with an injured ankle, but proved able to skate through it, although she was in tears after both her programs. Despite her combination being the slightly easier triple loop-triple loop, she took third and a nearly two-point lead on Choi after the short, mostly on presentation. Both skaters also nailed their long programs. But here, not only did Choi do a harder triple lutz-triple toe, but all three of her combinations too were harder than Kim’s equivalents. That was enough for her to take third in the free, while Kim was fifth. But Kim remained the superior performer, and that kept the distance from being much. When the numbers crunched together, Kim took bronze and the spot to Worlds by three tenths of a point.

Coming in just behind Choi Da-bin was the unfortunate reigning champion, You Young. She had been in sixth after the short, where she fell on her triple lutz-triple toe. She came painfully close to both a clean free and a likely higher placement when she nailed most of her long, including the triple lutz-triple toe. Then she had a stumble out of her final jumping pass. She was still second in the segment, and overall was even within two and a half points of Kim Ye-lim. But she only moved up to fifth, still six tenths of a point behind Choi. She wasn’t trying to qualify for anything, because she won’t be old enough for even junior international competitions until next season, but it was still a big disappointment.

With over 48 competitors, the junior ladies had 30 of them advance to the free skate.

The top ten finished:

1. Choi So-eun 137.79
2. Choi Hyun-soo 131.97
3. Lee Yu-rim 131.48
4. Seo Ye-eun 130.50
5. Park Mi-sun 125.77
6. Chi Hye-seung 123.11
7. Jung You-jin 121.32
8. Lee Si-won 119.81
9. Kim Do-eun 115.71
10. Byun Yeo-jin 112.12

The junior ladies field was not only a big one, it was a volatile one. Choi So-eun took it by combining a clean first short with a good third place free, although a fall cost her winning the latter segment, and by skating with a good amount of maturity. Lee Yu-rim and Choi Hyun-soo, who came in first and second in the free, had come in tenth and seventh in the short, where they both fell to lose their combinations. But both stayed up during their longs, and Lee won the segment over Choi Hyun-soo largely by being more mature than her. She didn’t quite overtake her overall, coming up half a point short. But they both overtook everyone else except Choi So-eun, and so Choi Hyun-soo won silver and Lee Yu-rim bronze.

Pairs & Ice Dance

Both the pairs and the ice dance competitions were won by Korean ladies skating with American partners who hope to gain Korean citizenship in time to compete at the Olympics next year. The Korean federation has made an effort to develop teams in both disciplines to represent them at their home games, but they’ve had some troubles along the way. Last year Ji Min-ji & Themistocles Leftheris were the only pair in the competition. They say defending one’s first national title is always harder than winning it, but newly having to beat other teams for it made that more true than usual.

They didn’t help their cause with a shaky short program which included a fall from her on the side by side triple salchows. Kim Kyu-eun & Alex Kang-chan Kam won the short instead. But despite going down on the throw salchow Ji & Leftheris had a much more solid long program, while Kim & Kam suffered three falls in theirs. They dropped down to third, leaving Li & Leftheris to repeat as champions and claim the Worlds berth. A close to clean free skate, however, brought the youngest team, Kim Su-yeon & Kim Hyung-tae, pretty close to them in the overall standings:

1. Ji Min-ji & Themistocles Leftheris 140.49
2. Kim Su-yeon & Kim Hyung-tae 137.62
3. Kim Kyu-eun & Alex Kang-chan Kam 127.57

There are in fact two Korean ice dance teams with foreign-born partners. But Rebeka Kim & Russian Kirill Minov have been out with injury the entire season. They might have made it a competition had they made it to Nationals, but without them there, Min Yu-ra & Alexander Gamelin didn’t have any real trouble winning their first national title and the trip to Worlds over Lee Ho-jung & Richard Kang-in Kam. They especially won the short dance by a large margin when they skated well it in, though Lee & Kam were much closer in the free dance standings after Gamelin struggled with his twizzles. The overall standings:

1. Min Yu-ra & Alexander Gamelin 134.26
2. Lee Ho-jung & Richard Kang-in Kam 127.80

All five teams are able and set to compete at the Four Continents Championships. Kim So-yeon & Kim Hyung-tae will also compete at Junior Worlds.

Next: Polina Edmunds Taking the Loss, Probably Out of Nationals

Nationals seasons wraps next week, with the U.S. and Canada both holding their events.