Korea sidelined from top 10 in gold medal standing in Sochi

Speed skater Lee Sang-hwa’s gold medal on Tuesday put Korea in the top 10 in gold medal standings, but the country slipped by one notch to 11th with no additional medals on Wednesday.

Another medal hopeful for speed skating, Mo Tae-bum, failed to add to the medal tally on Wednesday by finishing in 12th place with 1:09.37 in the men’s 1,000 meters.

Lee won gold in the women’s 500 meters on Tuesday in a combined time of 74.70 seconds, setting a new Olympic record.

South Korea is aiming to rank among the top 10 countries by winning at least four gold medals in this year’s Olympics.

After five days of the 2014 Winter Olympics, Germany and Canada are leading the medal count.

Here are the medal standings for the top 10 countries through Wednesday.

Rank    Country          Gold    Silver   Bronze     Total
1     Germany                6        1        0         7
2     Canada                 4        4        2        10
3     Norway                  4        3        5        12
4     Netherlands          4        2        4        10
5     United States       3        1        5         9
6     Switzerland           3        0        1         4
7     Austria                  1        4        0         5
8     Russia                  1        3        3         7
9     Slovenia               1        1        2         4
   10     France                1        0        2         3

By Ock Hyun-ju, Intern reporter (laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)