Figure skater Lee wins 2nd Junior Grand Prix title

With her latest international title, South Korean teenage figure skating phenom Lee Hae-in has joined exclusive company.

Lee, 14, captured the ladies singles title at the International Skating Union (ISU) Junior Grand Prix stop in Zagreb, Croatia, on Saturday (local time).

With a personal-high total of 203.40 points, Lee became only the second South Korean figure skater, after retired star Kim Yu-na in 2005, to win two straight ISU Junior Grand Prix crowns. Lee won her first Junior Grand Prix title three weeks ago in Latvia.

Lee has also qualified for the ISU Junior Grand Prix Final as one of the top six skaters in the ladies singles through six competitions so far.

Lee is now one of three South Korean women to surpass 200 points at an ISU competition, after Kim and Lim Eun-soo.

Lee was in second place after Friday’s short program with 69.29 points, 1.80 points behind Daria Usacheva of Russia.

But with a flawless free skate, Lee outscored Usacheva 134.11 to 126.10 to finish first overall. Usacheva had also finished as the runner-up to Lee in Latvia earlier this month.

Performing to “Firedance” from the Irish show “Riverdance,” Lee opened her free program with a clean triple lutz-triple toe loop combination. She nailed her next three jump elements. In the latter half of the program, with the base value for jumps multiplied by 1.1 for “highlight distribution,” she had a strong execution of a double axel-triple toe loop combination, followed by a triple lutz-double toe loop-double loop combination.

South Korea took a step closer to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics soccer tournament last week.

On Thursday at a plush hotel in Bangkok, the draw took place to decide the groups for January’s Asian U23 Championships that will take place in January.

The young Taeguk Warriors do not need to win the title, but if they can finish in the top three then a place awaits them at the summer Olympics.

First though, Korea will have to get out of its group by finishing in the top two spots. It is a tough one. There is defending champion Uzbekistan, winner of the title in 2018, China and also Iran.

Getting to the next stage should still be well within the team’s capabilities but there can be no slip-ups. One mistake and it could all be over.

There will be several concerns for Korea and not least of which is that the best players may not be available.

Clubs do not have to release