Taipei City / Chinese Taipei

The ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships 2017 continued in Taipei City, Chinese Taipei, Friday with the Ladies Short Program.

Alina Zagitova (RUS) captures Ladies Short Program

Alina Zagitova of Russia captured the Ladies Short Program. Japan’s Marin Honda and Kaori Sakamoto finished second and third.

Skating to “Samson and Dalilah”, Zagitova hit a triple Lutz-triple toe, triple loop, double Axel and picked up a level four for her spins and footwork. The ISU Junior Grand Prix Final Champion scored 70.58 points. “This is a very serious competition, one of the most important for me this season. So I was very nervous of course, but the nervousness went away as soon as hit my starting pose and the program just went from there“, the 14-year-old said.

Honda’s performance to “Smile” featured a triple flip-triple toe combination, a triple loop, double Axel as well as two level-four spins and a level-four step sequence. The 2016 World Junior Champion posted a new personal best with 68.35 points. “In the first half of the season I put too much pressure on myself, but then I realized that I don’t need to do that. Fortunately or unfortunately I met my goal to win already last year. So now I am more relaxed than a year ago“, the 15-year-old commented.

Sakamoto landed a triple loop, flip-triple toe, double Axel in her program to “The Artist”. Her three spins merited a level four and the 16-year-old earned 67.78 points, a new personal best. “I am satisfied that I could achieve a personal best score in such a big event. Two seasons ago and this season I felt the same – I just have to do what I can do. But the difference is that two years ago I though I’ll never be able to beat the Russian girls, but now I started to think that maybe I can after all“, the Japanese Junior Champion explained.

Eunsoo Lim (KOR) came fourth at 64.78 points. Yuna Shiraiwa (JPN) sits in fifth (62.96 points) and Stanislava Konstantinova (RUS) placed sixth (58.90 points).

For more information, full entry lists and results please see: www.isu.org and http://www.wjc2017.com/. #WorldJFigure