South Korea's Kim Yu-na has risen to fifth place in the International Skating Union (ISU)'s world rankings after winning the union's Grand Prix final women's figure staking title, the union said Sunday.
The 16-year-old high school student jumped four spots from the 9th with a total of 3,379 points in the latest world rankings released by the ISU on its Internet Web site.
Russia's Irina Slutskaya remained atop the board with 3,930 points, despite her absence from the 2006-2007 ISU Grand Prix series, while Mao Asada of Japan remained in second place with 3,555 points, followed closely by her national teammate Fumie Suguri who garnered 3,477.
Kim, the first Korean to win an ISU championship at this year's world juniors, shocked defending champion Mao to take the lead in the final Saturday.
She scored a combined 184.20 points to win the title ahead of 16-year-old Asada (172.52) and Switzerland's Sarah Meier (170.28).
Kim is to return home Tuesday after participating in a figure skating gala show with other winners of the championships in St.
Petersburg of Russia. She will take part in the 6th Winter Asian Games set to open in Changchun, China next month.
Seoul, Dec. 17 (Yonhap News)
S. Korean female figure skater jumps to fifth in world ranking |
