Host South Korea aims for record haul at 2018 Winter Games

REUTERS - South Korea has set a target of 20 medals at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, including at least eight gold, to finish in the top four of the medals table for the first time, according to a senior sports official.

If South Korea achieves its target at next year's Games, it will surpass its record gold tally of six at the 2006 Torino Olympics and at Vancouver four years later.

South Korea won a record 14 medals at Vancouver, taking six silver medals and two bronze to finish fifth overall.

"Right now, I'd say we're locked to win about six gold medals," Lee Jae-kun, head of the National Training Centre in Seoul, was quoted as saying by Yonhap News Agency on Thursday.

"The key is to try to turn a couple of silver medals into gold medals."

Lee added that South Korea was targeting four silver medals and eight bronze.

Last month, sports data firm Gracenote Sports predicted that Norway would top the medals table for the first time in 16 years, while the hosts were tipped to tie their record gold medal haul.

While short track speed skating is South Korea's best bet for gold, the country is also counting on its first gold medal from a sliding event, with men's skeleton racer Yun Sung-bin having won silver at last year's world championships.

(Reporting by Hardik Vyas in Bengaluru)