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| ◇photo courtesy of the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation |
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| ◇photo courtesy of the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation |
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Cho Sung-in (12th, A1) is the hero of this year's first Grand Prix and 2025 Speed On Grand Prix. It was a delightful victory that showed perfect in-game taking advantage of the merits of the first course.
This speed-on-bae Grand Prix was unusual from the preliminary round. As soon as the contestant's ticket came out, many picked Cho Yong-gyu (4th, A1) and Kim Jong-min (2nd, A1) as strong candidates for the championship, who performed as well as their heyday this year without much ups and downs. In addition, they were all assigned one course in the preliminary round, so considering their usual ability to operate one course, they expected that they would easily advance to the final.
However, the results were not as expected.
In the first qualifying round, the 14th race on Wednesday, the 16th, experienced fishing boat-kyu made a mistake in failing to preempt the first turn mark, the most important match point after the start, and Cho Sung-in and Lee Dong-joon (8th, A1) penetrated the gap exquisitely and crossed the finish line side by side with 1st and 2nd strokes. Kim Eung-sun (11th, A1), who was assigned a six-course course, was also in third place. It was a shocking result that the leading candidate failed to win the third prize even though he was assigned the first course.
The 15th race was all the more regrettable. Kim Jong-min, who has continued to perform well without violating the preliminary start, committed a violation of the preliminary start in the first course this time, perhaps due to excessive greed. In addition, even Shim Sang-cheol (7th, A1) of the 5th course was disqualified for violating the pre-start. In the end, Kim Min-joon (13th, A1), Kim Wan-seok (10th, A1), and Kim Min-cheon (2nd, A1) advanced to the final.
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| ◇photo courtesy of the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation |
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Both Cho Yong-gyu and Kim Jong-min failed to win the Grand Prix in recent years, so they tried their best to win this tournament, but unfortunately, both players faced the worst results. Joo Eun-seok (5th, A1), who was considered as a candidate for the prize, failed to advance to the finals due to his fourth place in the preliminary round, and Moon Anna (3rd, B2), who was the only female player to participate in the preliminary round, also failed to cross the threshold of advancing to the finals. Thus, the speed-on-bae Grand Prix final was allocated in the order of Cho Sung-in, Kim Min-joon, Lee Dong-joon, Kim Wan-seok, Kim Min-cheon, and Kim Eung-sun.
The final match began with 15 races on the 17th, and it was the first course creator who led the game reliably from the start. He then dominated the lead through a stable turn at the first turn mark. Kim Min-joon, who dug inside Cho Sung-in, tried to turn the tables with a performance motor, but Cho Sung-in did not allow it and Kim Min-joon eventually had to be satisfied with the runner-up. Lee Dong-joon, who participated in the grand race for the first time, won the third prize. Kim Wan-seok, Kim Min-cheon, and Kim Eung-sun also advanced to the final and played well, but failed to overcome the disadvantage of the course and enter the prize. Cho Sung-in won 10 million won, runner-up Kim Min-joon won 7 million won, and third place Lee Dong-joon won 5 million won.
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| ◇photo courtesy of the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation |
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This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
