Korean anthem rings out across Gangneung for third time

By Lee Hana, Xu Aiying and Kim Young Deok
Photos = Jeon Han
April 5, 2017 | Gangneung-si

The Korean national anthem has echoed across Gangneung’s ice hockey rink for the third time this week.

Korea won its third consecutive game at the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship, Division II, Group A, defeating Australia 8-1 in a triumphant victory.

Having beaten two other competitors — Slovenia, 24th in the world, and Great Britain, 21st — in the week’s tournament, Team Korea, 23rd in the world, is speeding along on its journey toward the upcoming PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games.

“On the world stage and at the Olympics, we’ll be underdogs, but here in this tournament we’ve improved a lot and shown people what we can do,” said Korea’s coach, Sarah Murray. “The girls are ready to perform at their best for the remaining games,” she added.

The game’s first goal was scored by forward Park Jongah just 5 minutes and 2 seconds after the first period started. Park added another goal in the second period, at 10 minutes and 47 seconds, and assisted two other goals throughout the game.

Choi Yu Jung also scored two goals, one in the second period at 4 minutes and 41 seconds and another in the third period at 19 minutes and 43 seconds. Additional goals by Park Ye Eun, Han Soo Jin, Lee Eunji, and Eom Suyeon raised Korea’s winning margin.

When Eom Suyeon, the team’s youngest player at only 16-years-old, scored her first ever world championship goal in the final three seconds of the second period, her teammates celebrated with loud cheers and a group huddle.

Thanks to its three victories, Team Korea has now heard its national anthem played three times at the Kwangdong Hockey Center in Gangneung, Gangwon-do Province, one of the host cities of the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. At international ice hockey tournaments, the winning team’s national anthem is played at the end of the game.

“I think the past few months of intense training really paid off,” said Eom Suyeon, who was awarded the MVP award for the game. “I’m so thrilled to have scored a goal during the world championship. I’m also starting to feel just how close we are to next year’s Winter Olympics,” she said with a big smile.

Park Jongah, who helped lead her team to victory with the most shots on goal, said, “I was able to score those goals thanks to the support of my teammates. Thanks to our previous wins, we’ve been in high spirits. We’ve been training very hard, and so the team has started to have bigger dreams of winning the tournament.”

hlee10@korea.kr