Figure-skating megastar Kim Yu-na performs during the free skate of the Korean national championships at the Goyang Oulimnuri Ice Rink in Gyeonggi Province on Sunday. The reigning Olympic champion topped the competition with 227.86 points, brightening her prospects for the upcoming Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. / Yonhap

Sochi favorite Kim dominates in what could be her last national championship

By Kim Tong-hyung

Kim Yu-na, center, poses with silver medalist Park So-youn, left, and bronze-medalist Kim Hae-jin after topping the Korean figure-skating national championship held at the Goyang Oulimnuri Ice Rink in Gyeonggi Province, Sunday. / Yonhap

Figure-skater Kim Yu-na went out and dominated her competition. In other news, the sun came up.

In what could be her final appearance in the Korean national championship, the reigning Olympic champion easily finished in first place with 227.86 points after Sunday’s free skate at the Goyang Oulimnuri Ice Rink in Gyeonggi Province. This further illuminated her bright prospects for the upcoming Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.

Runner-up Park So-youn was nearly 50 points behind with a score of 178.17, a staggering margin that still failed to fully represent the disparity in talent. On Saturday, Kim set an unofficial personal best with 80.60 points in the short program.

''I made a mistake in the free skate, but I think I performed cleanly overall. This performance is a confidence-booster,’’ Kim told reporters.

''There is nothing special more I can do before the start of the Olympics. I will try to pull up my conditioning and practice to improve my jump execution.’’

After her historic performance in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, when she took the gold with a world-record of 228.56 points, Kim is now looking to become only the third woman ever to repeat as Olympic champion. She has already ruled out a three-peat, insisting on retiring after the Sochi Games.

Kim, a 23-year-old native of Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, will be the face of the Korean delegation next month in Sochi, if not the face of the Olympics entirely, being as big a star as the sport of figure skating has ever seen.

The national championship was Kim’s final preparation event before the start of the Winter Games next month. Although she will be competing against tougher foes in Sochi, her sharpness in Goyang suggested she has no intention to leave room for drama in the Olympics.

When she’s at her best, Kim makes it clear even to the untrained eye that she simply works at a different level. Kim’s clinical execution of moves and playfully sexy and sophisticated expression on Sunday seemed to represent something close to her best.

At next month’s Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, Kim Yu-na will aim to become only the third female figure-skater ever to defend her Olympic title. / Yonhap

Performing to the tango piece ''Adios Nonino,’’ Kim nailed her first jump combination ― triple lutz-triple toe loop ― with perfection.

She showed impressive height and speed in her following jumps, including a triple lutz, and may have set an unofficial personal best in overall points if she hadn’t under-rotated her last double axel.

It’s safe to say that Kim is now comfortably distanced from her foot injury, which sidelined her for three-months before the Golden Spin of Zagreb event in Croatia in December. While she won the gold in Croatia with 204.48 points, Kim had shown some rust, falling on a triple lutz-triple toe loop that opened her free skate routine.

Her performance in Goyang seemed solid enough to erase the worries about her form and fitness. Park and Kim Hae-jin, who finished third in the national championship with 159.75 points, will compete with Kim in the Olympics.

In Sochi, Kim’s closest competitor is once expected to be long-time rival Asada Mao of Japan, who earned her fourth-career win at the International Skating Union (ISU) Grand Prix Final in Tokyo last November.

However, this is a rivalry that hasn’t been close. Asada won the silver medal in Vancouver but was 23 points behind Kim.

In their most recent meeting at the 2013 World Championships in March last year, Kim won the event with a dominating performance that earned 218.31 points, while Asada finished a distant third.

Asada, who recently finished third in the Japanese national championships, is probably the more athletically-gifted skater, being the only woman in the world who can land triple axels with anything resembling regularity. However, she has yet to execute the jump cleanly this season.