S. Korean para Nordic skier makes history
South Korean para Nordic skier Sin Eui-hyun on Sunday said that he is proud to become part of the country’s Winter Paralympic history after winning bronze in a cross-country skiing event here.
Sin won South Korea’s first medal at the PyeongChang Winter Paralympics after finishing third in the men’s 15-kilometre sitting crosscountry skiing event at Alpensia Biathlon Centre in PyeongChang, some 180 kilometres east of Seoul, reports Yonhap news agency.
He clocked 42 minutes, 28. 9 seconds, which was 51.9 seconds behind gold medallist Maksym Yarovyi of Ukraine. Daniel Cnossen of the United States was second at 42:20.7.
“I feel very honoured to write history,” Sin said after the competition. “It would have been better if I claimed gold. But I think this is a good start for me, and I’ll do my best to perform better next time.”
Sin’s bronze was South Korea’s first medal in crosscountry skiing at the Winter Paralympics. His bronze is also South Korea’s third medal won at a Winter Paralympic Games.
Alpine skier Han Sang-min at Salt Lake City 2002 and the national wheelchair curling team at Vancouver 2010 previously won silver medals.
“Obviously, my goal was to win a gold medal,” he said. “I tried to save my energy in the early phase of the race and use my full power in the latter, but it didn’t go as I planned.”
Sin was fifth until the 3.8km mark. He advanced to third from the 12.99km intermediate point, but couldn’t reduce time.
This was Sin’s second event that he competed in at the PyeongChang Paralympics. In the men’s 7.5km sitting biathlon on Saturday, he took fifth.