Palo Alto’s Vincent Zhou had to skate flawlessly Friday in his long program at the junior World Championships in Taiwan.
Zhou, 16, didn’t miss in an arresting performance to a “Casablanca”-themed program, rallying from fifth place to become the world champion. Zhou’s commanding finish included a quadruple lutz and two quadruple salchows — one in combination with a triple salchow — two triple axels and four triple jumps.
The U.S. senior silver medal winner scored 179.24 points for a total of 258.11 points to roll past runner-up Dmitri Aliev, who led the Russians to second-, third- and fourth-place finishes.
It wasn’t just Zhou’s jumping. He looked elegant with Level 4 footwork while wearing a white top coat and black pants.
“For me, the most important area to develop is my artistic side,” Zhou said in a news conference. “I know the technical side is very, very important nowadays because people are doing more and more quads. Of course, I will need to be doing more and more quads, too. But I can’t just be a jump machine and skate like a robot.”
World Junior Figure Skating Championships kicked off on Wednesday in Chinese Taipei, the Russians claim to the maximum number of awards in all kinds of competitions. The tournament will be held March 15-18. 184 athletes from 43 member countries of the International Skating Union (ISU) announced to participate in the championship. In the women's figure skating Russia will present Pauline Tsurskaya, Alina Zagitova and Stanislava Konstantinova. All three athletes are ready to win a place on the podium, and Zagitova looks the most likely contender for the gold, as the winner of the Finals of the Junior Grand Prix and the championship of Russia among juniors.
The competition they will be the reigning world junior champion Marin Honda. But, firstly, this season of hope for the Japanese figure skating consists not in the best way - she took two second places in the stages of the Junior Grand Prix Final in the series does not start, and the junior championship of Japan was third. And secondly, the last title went to her with the non-ideal random hire Russians Maria Sotskova, which soon starts at senior world championships in Helsinki, and that the leader after the short program last year's world championship Alice Fedichkina appeared before any due to injury, and Tsurskaya for the same reason - and at all events prior to the start.
In February this year Tsurskaya, recovering from knee surgery, because of which missed the final Grand Prix in Marseille, became the bronze medalist of Russian championship among juniors, and then won the final of the Russian Cup in Saransk. There it is on the adult category of more than 10 points surpassed the world champion 2015 Yelizaveta Tuktamysheva, and this is not surprising. But at the moment the best Russian juniors Zagitova usually seriously Tsurskuyu plays in the technical evaluation, although somewhat inferior to a more experienced friend in the group coach Eteri Tutberidze in components.
The third day of competition at the 2017 Figure Skating World Junior Championships, currently being held in Taipei, where this morning took place on female short program.
As expected, Alina Zagitova took command of operations in the women's short program, exceeding quota seventy points and touching for a few tenths of their own personal best. The young skater has obtained 70.58 points, resulting definitely the best from a technical point of view (41.41 points) and also earning a strong evaluation components in (29.17 points).
Although Zagitova remains the big favorite for the title, the fight for victory is still open, as the Japanese Marin Honda has developed its own personal best, leading him to share 68.35 points, a result obtained thanks largely to the best score in the components (29.73 points). The third place went to another Japanese Kaori Sakamoto (67.78 points), while behind the provisional podium are South Korea's Lim Eun-Soo (64.78 points) and Japanese Yuna Shiraiwa (62.96 points).
Russian figure skater Alina Zagitova became the winner of the Junior World Cup, which ended in Taiwan, according to "Russia 24". With the sum of short and long programs, she scored 208.60 points. Second and third places were won by Japanese athletes.
This season, 14-year-old Zagitova also became the winner of the Junior Grand Prix Final, won the European Youth Olympic Festival, as well as the championship of Russia among juniors. In addition, she won second place in the adult championship of Russia. In 2016 she was awarded the title of Master of Sports of Russia.
The gold medal, as forecast saw the trend of short, went to the Russian Alina Zagitova. Her free program worth a stratospheric 138.02, for a total of 208.60, a new world record in junior competition. Silver for the Japanese Honda Marin (201.61) and his compatriot Kaori Sakamoto (195.54).
No surprises in the free skating today, which left unchanged the Prime and positions. As expected, the victory went to the Russian Alina Zagitova dominated the junior season, which got 138.02 points for its current financial year, earning 75.81 points for technical elements and 62.21 points for components. The total of 208.60 points is the new world record in the junior competition, going to improve a record that already belonged to fourteen.
In Chinese Taipei at the World Junior Championships in figure skating, the free program was won the 14-year-old Russian single skater Alina Zagitova (208.60), ahead of two Japanese skaters.
In December Zagitova won the junior final "Grand Prix" and the championship of Russia was second, behind only champion of Europe and the world's Evgenia Medvedeva. Serve with older athletes in the top tournaments native of Izhevsk in the season could not because of the age limit.
Zagitova is training in Moscow under the direction of Sergei and Eteri Tutberidze Dudakov.
Confirmed the double medal for the Japanese skaters, with the second position of Marin Honda (133.26 Free points and 201.61 total points) and third Kaori Sakamoto (Free 127.76 points and 195.54 total points). Good performance of the South Korean Lim Eun-Soo, but not enough to win the podium (180.81), while the fifth is the third Japanese Yuna Shiraiwa (174.38 points).