Skeleton-Yun chalks up a Korean first with World Cup title

Jan 19 (Reuters) - South Korean slider Yun Sung-bin made history for his country on Friday by winning the men's skeleton overall World Cup and ending a run of eight titles in a row for Estonia's Martins Dukurs.

The first Korean to win the title did so without taking part in the final round of the season in Koenigsee, Germany. Yun was already preparing for the Pyeongchang Games on home ice with three weeks to go.

Dukurs, a five-times world champion who took silver at the Sochi Olympics and is line to inherit the gold after Russian Alexander Tretyakov was banned for doping, placed second on Friday.

A ninth title would have been his had he not been disqualified retrospectively from the previous round in Switzerland just before the final race because his sled's runners were too hard.

Instead Dukurs finished fourth overall, behind his brother Tomass.

The women's World Cup skeleton title went to Germany's Jacqueline Loelling for the second year in a row.

Britain's Olympic champion Lizzy Yarnold ended the season ninth overall after finishing fourth in the Koenigsee race, and said she was "super happy".

"It's been a mammoth team effort over many months and it's good to come in the top 10 in the overall World Cup rankings," she added

"There's been many lows so I'm excited to finish the circuit on a high." (Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Pritha Sarkar)