It was a major upset when South Korea stole a march on China in the women's curling at the Winter Games yesterday.
The Korean team of Hyun Jung Lee (32), Un Chi Gim (22), Seul Bee Lee (23) and skip Ji Sun Kim (24) won the final at the Maniototo International Curling Rink.
They beat the Chinese combination of Yu Xinna, Liu Jinli, Sun Yue and skip Wang Bingyu 7-6 in a tense final.
This was a remarkable turnaround of fortunes because China has been one of the elite women's curling nations for the last few years.
They won the world title in 2009 and were third this year. They won the bronze medal at the Winter Olympics at Vancouver last year.
The skip Ji Sun Kim, a physical eduction student at Seoul, has been a member of the national team for the last three years and was the dominant player in the Korean team.
The win against China was special to her.
" It feels good. I'm very happy," she said.
The scores were level at 4-4 after the five-end break but Korea gained a decisive advantage by scoring two shots on the sixth end.
The end was really a battle of the skips, with Wang Bingyu pushing out the Korean stone to make two shots.
But the Korean skip Ji Sun Kim replied with one of the best shots of the game by pushing out the two Chinese shot stones and leaving Korea with one shot. She then added the bonus shot with her last stone to give Korea a 6-4 lead.
Korea had the advantage and then adopted a safety first approach to keep its advantage. It had a potential three shots on the eighth end, when the Chinese skip cut the count down to one shot.
But it gave Korea the lead 7-4. The three-shot advantage put Korea in the box seat with just two ends left.
China needed two shots on the 10th end to force the extra end.
The Chinese skip skip Wang Bingyu played a superb shot with her last stone. It pushed up her own stone and pushed out the Korean shot rock.
It forced a measure for second shot but the umpire's measure favoured Korea and it won the gold medal.
