Today was the day of the Free Skating program and saw Japan in first line followed by Korea. Seoyeong WI for Korea opens the event (Points 170.54), followed by Nicole Schott (GER). The German athlete shows growth compared to the previous event in Turin, she makes few mistakes but concludes with a single toeloop. (172.37 Points).
Rino MATSUIKE (JPN) skates a challenging choreography. Only 17 years old, she is a very capable athlete with lots of quality and clean lines, she opens her choreography with a double axel followed by an excellent combination of triple lutz + double toeloop. She is on her debut in an international senior competition (186.17 Points).
Amber Glenn (USA) opens with a 3 flip + 3 toe loop combination and a great double axel (175.83 Points). Eunsoo LIM (KOR) makes several mistakes and tries to correct the choreography, an attempt that does not succeed well, she only gains (186.68 Points).
The real competition starts with Alysa Liu (USA): she was expected to complete the triple axel, which she then performed well. The difficult combination of triple lutz + eurler + triple flip was also very nice. She gains (202.90 Points). Young YOU (KOR) performed many difficult elements that then led her to a fall. However she still goes ahead in the temporary ranking with 203.60 Points, which portends the same podium as the yesterday’s short program.
Expectation gets higher with Mana KAWABE (JPN), which the athlete does not disregard with her excellent quality, despite a brutal fall on the triple axel in the opening (205.44 Points).
Kaori SAKAMOTO (JPN) opens with a double axel and a triple lutz and a great combination of triple flip + triple toeloop, all very well executed. The excellence of her performance included a triple salcow and a combination of double axel + triple toeloop + double toeloop. She easily tops the rankings winning the gold medal (223.34 Points), qualifying for the final in Osaka in December.
