South Korea’s Pyeongchang fell four votes short to Russia’s Sochi in a bid for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, its second defeat after losing to Canada’s Vancouver for the 2010 Games.

The decision came at the International Olympic Committee’s general meeting in Guatemala Thursday morning, where two rounds of votes were held. In the first round, none of the three competing cities won the required amount of votes and in the second, Sochi won 51 votes to Pyeongchang's 47.

The two cities battled for the final votes after Austria’s Salzberg fell out of the race in the first round.

President Roh Moo-hyun flew to Guatemala last week to drum up support for Pyeongchang while other heads of state also joined in the intensive campaigning for their respective nations.

Pyeongchang received the highest scores in a technical report conducted last month, outshining Sochi and Salzburg, and was predicted to be the strongest candidate by many media outlets.

However, Russia’s Sochi won the majority of votes in the second round and will be the official host of the 2014 Winter Games.