2018 World Junior Figure Skating Championships: Ladies’ podium (From L to R) Alena Kostornaia (RUS), Alexandra Trusova (RUS), and Mako Yamashita (JPN)
2018 World Junior Figure Skating Championships: Ladies
Russia’s Alexandra Trusova took the Ladies title at the 2018 World Junior Figure Skating Championships, making history along the way for being the first lady to land two quads in a free skate and the youngest to win a World Junior title. Teammate Alena Kostornaia won the silver, while Mako Yamashita of Japan earned the bronze.
Trusova nailed her two opening jumps, a quad Salchow and quad toe, in the opening of her routine to “The Four Seasons.” The 2018 Russian junior champion also landed seven solid triples, beating Alina Zagitova’s Olympic total element score (81.62) from the 2018 Olympics with 92.35. The skater from Moscow showed strong level 4 spins and footwork, earning a new personal best of 153.49 for first place in the free skate and overall (225.52).
The 13-year-old was happy to have won, but even happier to have landed the two quads.
“I prepared for that and I did it,” Trusova said. “After I landed the quads, I was very happy, but I still had the rest of the program to do. There were still three difficult combinations to come and I had to pull myself together.”
“No, I can’t do any others,” she responded, when asked about other quads, “but I would like to learn them all. “Actually at first I wanted to learn the triple Axel when I was about ten years old and I was still with another coach. Half a year after I switched to Eteri Georgievna (Tutberidze), we tried the triple Axel, but it did not go well. Then we decided to try a quad, first the Salchow. I did it April last year. The quad toe I started after the (Junior) Grand Prix Final (in December 2017). It was already easier after the Salchow.”
The 2017-18 Junior Grand Prix Final champion doesn’t like “age limits” in competition, but understands their purpose.
The teen sports very long hair, which has never been cut (only trimmed) since birth. “I watched the movie ‘Rapunzel’ and she had very long hair and I liked that when I was little.”
With the exception of a step out on a triple Lutz, training mate Kostornaia was solid in her routine to “Stella’s Theme,” showing good artistry and earning the highest program component score of the night. The 2017-18 JGP Final silver medalist finished second in the free skate with a new personal best of 135.76, placing second overall (207.39).
“I am not very pleased with my performance,” said the 14-year-old. “The result is satisfactory, but I could have skated much better.”
Yamashita also scored a new personal best (128.38) after her free skate to Madame Butterfly which featured seven clean triple jumps, as well as level 4 spins and footwork. The 2017–18 Japanese junior silver medalist maintained third overall with a total score of 195.17.
“I enjoyed skating today,” said the 15-year-old from Nagoya. “That I was able to get the bronze medal is the result of hard work. I wasn’t thinking about the result or the score, I just focused on what I had to do and I think that led to the result.”
Stanislava Konstantinova of Russia, who stood in sixth after the short, finished fifth (123.72) in the long with her routine to music of Anna Karenina soundtrack. The 2018 Russian junior bronze medalist under-rotated the back half of a triple flip-single loop-triple Salchow, but otherwise showed a good triple Lutz-triple toe. She moved up two spots to fourth overall (186.35).
Eunsoo Lim of South Korea finished in fifth place overall (185.12), followed by Japan’s Yuhana Yokoi (184.78).
