With only the top 24 of the 30 skaters from today’s short programme being able to qualify to the final round (free skating) scheduled for tomorrow, Yee missed the chance with a mere 1.15-point difference, for a 25th placing at the Gangneung Ice Arena.
The 21-year-old, the first ever figure skater to qualify for the Winter Olympics from Malaysia, however justified his participation by setting a new season’s best with 73.58 points, behind Germany’s Paul Fentz, who finished in 24th place to earn the last qualifying spot with 74.73 points.
His previous season’s best for the short event was 71.93 points.
Kuala Lumpur-born Yee, who performed To Build a Home composed by the music group The Cinematic Orchestra, was confident throughout the performance, which was marred by a little mistake, to score 38.37 points in technical elements and 35.21 points for presentation.
Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) president Tunku Imran Tuanku Jaafar was among the small group of Malaysian supporters seen cheering for the Malaysian contender.
Defending champion Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan, making a comeback from injury, topped the score with a remarkable 111.68 points, followed by Spain’s Javier Fernandez (107.58 points) and Japan’s Shoma Uno (104.17 points).
For the short event, each skater is allocated a maximum duration of two minutes 40 seconds (+/- 10s), while for the free skating the participants are given up to four minutes (+/- 10s).
The free skating event is at 10am tomorrow (9am Malaysian time) at the same venue.
Through a post on his Instagram after the event, Yee promised to continuously learn and improve his skills to achieve more victories in the future.
“Definitely such a great experience here in Pyeongchang! I really tried to give my best and skated my heart out. Unfortunately, I missed the Freeskate qualifying cut by one place.
“Nevertheless I am still happy with the result and will always keep pushing on, learning and improving. I am so thankful for being able to achieve a season’s and personal best score.
“I would like to thank you all for supporting me. You guys are so awesome and I honestly could not have done it without all of you. I think it’s safe to say that Malaysia has now made sporting history and hopefully there are many more to come. MALAYSIA BOLEH!” he wrote.
Meanwhile, alpine ski racer Jeffrey Webb, Malaysia’s only other representative at the Winter Games, will compete in the giant slalom event on Sunday and slalom on Thursday.