S. Korea sweeps Winter AG figure skating singles

South Korean figure skaters proved to be No. 1 at the Winter Asian Games in Harbin on Thursday, securing golds in both the men's and women's figure skating singles events.

Lee Seung-jae has more.

South Korea added three more gold medals to their tally on Thursday and made history in the process, winning gold medals in both the women's and men's figure skating singles event, which was a first for the country.

Female figure skater Kim Chae-yeon and male figure skater Cha Jun-hwan both ranked second after the short program earlier in the week.

However, both skaters came back on Thursday with flawless free skates.

Cha scored 187-point-6-0 points in the men's singles free skating program, finishing with a final tally of 281-point-6-9 points for the top podium finish.

Kim scored 147-point-5-6 points in the free skate to finish with 219-point-4-4 points overall, a personal best, beating three-time world champion Kaori Sakamoto of Japan for the gold medal.

Over in the men's snowboard halfpipe event,.. Mother Nature assisted South Korean snowboarder Kim Geon-hui on Thursday.

The final was canceled due to blustery conditions, and officials awarded Kim the gold medal, after scoring the best qualifying score of 78 points.

The gold medal finish gave South Korea its 15th top podium finish at the Winter Asian Games, and clinched second place in the medal rankings.

With the Winter Asian Games in Harbin set to end on Friday, South Korea will look to add a couple more gold medals to surpass their all-time best gold tally.

South Korea will compete for gold medals in both men's and women's curling.

The men's team will face off against the Philippines, while the women's team will play China.

Both the men's and women's team had previously defeated their opponents during the earlier round-robin play.

With one day of competition left, South Korea is second behind China in the medal rankings,.. with 15 gold medals, 14 silver, and 13 bronze,.. for a total of 42 medals.

Lee Seung-jae, Arirang News.