Cha Junhwan (left) and Kim Chaeyeon on Feb. 13 celebrate their gold medals in men's and women's single figure skating in the Winter Asian Games at Multifunctional Hall of Heilongjiang Ice Training Center in Harbin, China. (Korea Sport & Olympic Committee's official Facebook page)

By Xu Aiying

Korea will finish as runner-up in the Asian Winter Games in Harbin, China, after adding three gold medals in figure skating and snowboarding.

In figure skating, Cha Junhwan for the men and Kim Chaeyeon for the women on Feb. 13 each earned the gold in thrilling comebacks over their Japanese counterparts at Multifunctional Hall of Heilongjiang Ice Training Center in Harbin.

Cha won with a score of 281.69, beating Yuma Kagiyama (272.76), who was considered Asia's best in the event. Kim with 219.44 in free skating defeated world No. 1 Kaori Sakamoto (211.90).

Gold medalist Kim Geonhui (second from left in front row) and bronze medalist Lee Jio (fourth from left in front row) on Feb. 13 pose for a photo with other members of the national team at the men's snowboarding halfpipe finals of the Asian Winter Games at Yabuli Ski Resort in Shangzi, southeast of Harbin, China. (Yonhap News)

In men's snowboarding, Kim Geonhui won the gold. The day before, he won the preliminary round of the halfpipe with 78 points but the finals scheduled at Yabuli Ski Resort in Shangzi, southeast of Harbin, were canceled due to strong winds.

Lee Jio won the bronze thanks to his preliminary score of 69.75.

As of Feb. 14 at 10 a.m., Korea ranked second in overall medals with 15 gold, 14 silver and 13 bronze.

This was six more than third-place Japan, which had nine gold, 11 silver and 14 bronze, thus clinching second at the tournament for Korea with just four events left.

This is Korea's second straight runner-up finish at a Winter Asiad following that in 2017 in Sapporo, Japan.

xuaiy@korea.kr