Korea loses to Norway in mixed doubles curling at Winter Olympics

Kim Seon-yeong, left, and Jeong Yeong-seok of Korea look on during their round-robin match against Norway in the mixed doubles curling tournament of the Winter Olympics at Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, on Feb. 9. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

 
Korea lost its final match of the mixed doubles curling tournament at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics on Monday.
 
Kim Seon-yeong and Jeong Yeong-seok lost to Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten of Norway by 8-5 at Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, to close out the round-robin stage.
 
 
Korea finished the competition with a 3-6 record. It lost its first five matches before winning the next three.
 
Kim and Jeong looked poised for their fourth straight win but blew a 5-2 lead against Norway.
 
Korea was already eliminated from the knockout contention Sunday night, even after Kim and Jeong had defeated Estonia and Canada in succession earlier that day.
 
Korea built a 3-0 lead after the first two ends against Norway. The European side then cut the lead to 3-2 in the third end, but Kim made a perfect draw to the button in the fourth end to push Korea’s lead to 4-2.
 
The Korean advantage grew to 5-2 when Skaslien failed to execute a takeout with her final stone. But Norway pulled even with three points in the sixth end when Skasklien took advantage of her team’s power play.
 
Korea called a power play of its own in the seventh end, looking to regain its lead. Korea had a prime opportunity to grab at least one point as Kim held the final stone with the center of the house wide open. However, Kim was called for a violation after failing to release the stone before it touched the hog line. Norway had two stones closer to the button than Korea at that moment and was gifted two points thanks to Kim’s error.
 
Norway then added another point in the end for good measure.
 

Yonhap