KUALA LUMPUR: Julian Yee became the first-ever Malaysian to qualify for the Winter Olympics after placing sixth at the 49th CS Nebelhorn Trophy in Germany, earlier today. The 20-year-old, who is ranked 38 in the world, recorded his personal best total score of 220.67 points, breaking his previous best of 220 points set back in 2016. Julian, who was the first-ever skater to represent Malaysia at the ISU World Championship in 2016, came in sixth in his short programme with a score of 71.93 points. But, it was the 2017 Sea Games gold medallist’s free skate routine that garnered him the much-needed points (148.74) to place him in the top seven to qualify for Pyeongchang. His combined score of 191.74 points placed him behind Ukraine’s Yaroslav Paniot in seventh, with 208.76 points, and has qualified him, for the Winter Olympics due to Johnson’s prior eligibility to the Games, which means Martinez finished in the top seven.

Source: New Strait Times September 30, 2017 03:00 UTC