Kim Min-sun finishes 16th in women's 1,000 meters

Kim Min-sun finished 16th in the women's 1,000-meter speed skating finals on Thursday, with Kim Hyun-yung taking 25th and Park Ji-woo taking 30th.

Kim Min-sun, right, and Karolina Bosiek of Poland react after their heat in the women's speedskating 1,000-meter finals at the 2022 Winter Olympics on Thursday. [AP/YONHAP]

Kim Min-sun, left, competes against Karolina Bosiek of Poland during the women's speedskating 1,000-meter finals at the 2022 Winter Olympics on Thursday. [AP/YONHAP]

Kim Min-sun finished 16th in the women's 1,000-meter speed skating finals on Thursday, with Kim Hyun-yung taking 25th and Park Ji-woo taking 30th.

Kim Min-sun started Group 8 at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing and crossed the finish line with a time of 1:16.49, 3.30 seconds behind gold medalist Miho Takagi of Japan.

Kim Hyun-young took 25th with a time of 1:17.50, and Park finished last with a time of 1:19.33.

Initially, only Kim Min-sun and Kim Hyun-yung had earned a spot in the 1,000 meters. Just two hours ahead of the race, Park was informed that she would compete as the next highest-ranked skater after Hanna Nifantava of Belarus withdrew. Park originally only expected to skate in the women’s mass start on Saturday.

Kim Hyun-yung competes against Nikola Zdrahalova of the Czech Republic during the women's speedskating 1,000-meter finals at the 2022 Winter Olympics on Thursday. [AP/YONHAP]

Park Ji-woo competes during the women's speedskating 1,000-meter finals at the 2022 Winter Olympics, on Thursday. [AP/YONHAP]

Japan's Miho Takagi set a new Olympic record of 1:13.19, taking the gold medal, her fourth medal at the Beijing Games after three silvers in the women's 500 meters, women's 1,500 meters, and women's team pursuit.

Jutta Leerdam of the Netherlands took silver and Brittany Bowe of the United States took bronze.

Thursday’s race was Kim Min-sun’s second at the Beijing Games, after she finished seventh in the women’s 500-meter race on Sunday. This is her Olympics — she finished 16th in the 500 meters at the 2018 PyeongChang Games after a back injury prior to the Games. At the 2020 Four Continents, Kim won the women’s 500-meter gold medal and the women’s team sprint silver medal, coming in seventh in the women’s 1,000-meter race.

The Korean national speed skating team will continue their search for more medals on Friday with the men’s 1,000-meter race in the afternoon. The last two speed skating events of the Games — the men’s and women’s mass start — are scheduled on Saturday.

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