Japanese athlete wins last gold in Figure Skating

As the last set of medals in Figure Skating was awarded, Japanese Mai Mihara won gold, Kazakhstan’s Elizabeth Tursynbayeva won silver and Russian Stanislava Konstantinova took bronze.

 KRASNOYARSK, 9 March – Following the results of the Short Program that the skaters had performed the day before, the three leaders going into Free Skating were Japanese Mai Mihara, Russian Stanislava Konstantinova and another Japanese skater, Hina Takeno.

 

Takeno being in the top three surprised a few more pedigreed skaters, as she doesn’t yet figure prominently in the world rankings and her most noticeable result at the international level so far had been sixth place at the junior stage of the Grand Prix. But figure skating is a cult sport in Japan and Hina Takeno proved her mettle. She was 0.12 points ahead of the much more highly rated Kazakh, Elizabeth Tursynbayeva.

 

Tursynbayeva however, turned the tide in Free Skating with a nearly flawless performance for which she received a high score from the judges and finished with a total of 214.77 points for the two programmes. It was enough to take her into silver medal position.

 

“I am satisfied, I skated well,” said Tursynbayeva. “I did not manage to jump a quadruple Salchow jump. Probably I do not have enough practice in competitions. I did it several times during the training and I jumped it on the first day. It is a shame that I did not manage it today. But in general, today I skated better than yesterday. There is only one week left before the World Cup. I do not know if something can be done in a week, but I hope I can.”

 

Hina Takeno, who performed next, could not repeat the success of the previous day. She fell on two fluffed triple axels and jumped a double flip instead of a triple one. In the end, she went down from the third to the sixth place.

 

Stanislava Konstantinova was next in the fight for medals. She started well with a double axel and a triple loop through a half loop. Then she could pull off a cascade due to an unsuccessful fluffed triple axel, but she had already done enough to get a final result of 205.91 points. It was not enough to surpass Tursynbayeva, but Mai Mihara was to come next and decide the fate for all three athletes.

 

The Short Program leader managed to perform all the elements, including a complex cascade of double Lutz, double toe loop and double loop in the second half of the program, receiving 220.68 points as a result and the title of Universiade champion.

 

“I am very glad to take part in these competitions,” said a visibly happy Mihara. “I am very happy with my performance today. And please accept my gratitude for the opportunity to perform here.”

 

Results: Single Skating. Women

1. Mai Mihara (JPN) – 220.68

2. Elizabeth Tursynbayeva (KAZ) – 214.77

3. Stanislava Konstantinova (RUS) – 205.91

 

Earlier, 8 March

Home country wins fifth and sixth figure skating medals of Winter Universiade 2019

 KRASNOYARSK, 8 March – The Russians dominated the figure skating competition once again, taking home the gold and silver in the pairs’ ice dance competition.

 

Betina Popova and Sergey Mozgov took home the gold with a score of 183.01, with their fellow countrymen Sofia Evdokimova and Egor Bazin taking the silver with a score of 181.33. Adelina Galyavieva and Louis Thauron from France (below, right) won bronze with a score of 177.23.

 

“We are quite excited and happy about it because it was difficult for us,” Popova said. “This was our last performance of the season and it was complicated as well. It was really emotional, and we understood that this was our last performance of this program and next season we will have a new program.”

 

Popova and Mozgov wowed the crowd with their routine set to the song Master and Margarita by I. Korneluik. This is just the second international win for the pair, with their first win coming at the Volvo Open Cup in 2018.

 

Popova said she had an old heel injury that began acting up again lately, so she wasn’t able to practice at all last week. This made their performance even more emotional, she said, as she wasn’t sure how well she would be able to skate.

 

“My partner and coach were supporting me,” she said. “On the first day of the competition he fell and also had a small injury so that’s why we were really worried about it. We are really excited about our performance.”

 

What made the win even sweeter, Popova said, is that they are close friends with the silver medalists and have known each other since they were all at the junior level.

 

The figure skating competition at the 2019 Winter Universidad concludes on 9 March, with the figure skating gala – that includes free skating in both, the synchronized (10:45 local, GMT +7) and women’s (12:00 local) events. Both events will be streamed live on .

 

Results:

1. Betina Popova and Sergey Mozgov (RUS)

2. Sofia Evdokimova and Egor Bazin (RUS)

3. Adelina Galyavieva and Louis Thauron (FRA)

 

Earlier 

 

Gold for Italy in men’s figure skating

KRASNOYARSK, 7 March – Italy’s Matteo Rizzo stunned a packed Platinum Arena to take Gold in the men’s free skating.

He switched up styles from the traditional classical music that the majority of skaters performed to throughout the evening, as his Queen medley captivated the audience.

 

The graceful Italian stormed right to the top of the leader board after a flawless performance where, unlike many of his competitors, he executed every jump without failure.The performance of bronze medalist of the 2019 European Figure Skating Championship had the entire crowd spellbound. In the middle of his performance, Rizzo made a gesture that displayed his own delight in the performance. He skated with ease, artfulness and passion, and performed all the elements cleanly.

 

“The goal here was to skate two clean programs, I did it and I’m really happy,” Rizzo said about his gold-medal winning performance. “I am happy with the performances and my team is happy, it’s always good to be in the competition, especially in one of this importance.”

 

“The atmosphere of the Universaide is delightful,” he added. “The music of Queen that I skated to was really emotional, it perfectly matched the support I felt from the stands. The resulting atmosphere was unique and amazing.”

It was a very comfortable win in the end, with the judges awarding Rizzo a final score of 273.54, allowing him to storm past Russian skater Maxim Kovtun, who took silver with a final score of 259.49.

 

“About my performance, I can say that there were two mistakes,” Kovtun assessed his performance later. “But I’m confident that those mistakes that I made will help me to solve the problems related to my weaknesses today, and be better for my future expectations.”

Georgia’s Morisi Kvitelashvili finished with a bronze medal with his 258.02, with all three well ahead of the rest of the skaters.

 

RESULTS:

1. Mateo Rizzo (ITA)
2. Maxim Kovtun (RUS)
3. Morisi Kvitelashvili (GEO)

 

Earlier… 

 

Traditionally one of the highlight events in a winter sports programme, the pairs’ free skating round opened to packed crowds at the imposing Platinum Arena in Krasnoyarsk.

KRASNOYARSK, 7 March – An energetic crowd had gathered at the Platinum Ice Arena for the first medal in the ever-popular sport of figure skating. After the short programmes the day before, three Russian pairings and one Kazakh pairing took to the ice to perform their free skating routines at the Krasnoyarsk 2019 Winter Universiade.

 

It was no surprise then, that the Russian pairings made it to the podium, despite a few stumbles and crashes. The skaters did, however, remain calm and collected and executed graceful routines on the ice, much to the delight of the encouraging supporters.

 

Every pairing had at least one unfortunate fall during their difficult routines and it was the last pair of Alisa Efimova and Alexander Korovin, who had least points deducted and took gold with a final score of 171.01. It was, in fact, a clean sweep of medals for the Russians.

 

“We wanted to do the performance very emotionally,” said Korovin afterwards. “It was good, but technically it wasn’t as good as we wanted it to be.”

 

Efimova meanwhile ensured the fall didn’t affect her performance. “It’s very difficult for me to do three axels, and it’s very hard for me to stay upright on the landing. I was in some pain after the jump.”

 

“I think the main thing is just to forget the moment and think about the next one,” she added. “And what I can get from the next element. That’s the main thing. It was my fault.”

Their fellow Russians Anastasia Poluianova and Dmitry Sopot took second with a score of 169.99, while Alexandra Koshevaia and Dmitry Bushlanov placed third with 151.78.

 

The Kazakhstani pair suffered from two nasty falls which ultimately cost them a place on the podium, as they finished fourth with a score of 83.28.

 

Figure skating continues on 8 March, International Women’s Day at the Krasnoyarsk 2019 Winter Universiade, with the Ice Dance medal round (free dance) at 19:30 local time (+7 GMT) and the women’s singles short programme at 14:00 local time (+7 GMT). All action will be streamed live on .

 

Results: Pairs

1. Alisa EFIMOVA / Alexander KOROVIN (RUS)

2. Anastasia POLUIANOVA / Dmitry SOPOT (RUS)

3. Alexandra KOSHEVAIA / Dmitry BUSHLANOV (RUS)

 

By FISU International Young Reporter James Oana at the Krasnoyarsk 2019 Winter Universiade