Rhythmic gymnast achieves milestone in World Cup series

Promising rhythmic gymnast Son Yeon-jae has become the first Korean to win a medal in the World Cup series sanctioned by the International Gymnastics Federation.

Son won a bronze medal Saturday jointly with Ganna Rizatdinova of Ukraine in the ribbon final of the FIG Rhythmic Gymnastics World Cup in Sofia, Bulgaria, with 27.3 points. The Korean also won a bronze in hoop of the Penza World Cup in Russia April 29.

Son placed seventh in individual rankings Friday by scoring a cumulative 109.8 points from hoop (27.775), ball (26.55), clubs (27.75) and ribbon (27.725). The following day, she finished fourth in hoop (27.7) and seventh in clubs (24.9) but shared the third spot in ribbon.

Son`s choreographer Lucy Dimitrova said, “It`s not easy for even top-10 rankers to win medals in two straight World Cup series events. I first thought that Yeon-jae was a cute Asian girl but now she`s grown into someone that European players need to pay attention to.”

The gymnast plans to continue training in Novogorsk, Russia, before competing in the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Cup in Uzbekistan.

"I made a mistake in the clubs final but I`m glad that I`ve psychologically overcome it. I`ll do my best to advance to the final of the London Olympic Games," Son said.