Friday, March 26, 2010

Nagasu jumps to lead at World Championships

16-year old Mirai Nagasu of Arcadia, Calif., stormed to the lead after the ladies short program at the 2010 World Figure Skating Championships in Torino, Italy. She attempted a triple Lutz-triple toe loop combination, and while the second jump was likely under rotated, her inspired performance was still enough to grab first place with a personal best score of 70.40 points.

Olympic silver medalist Mao Asada of Japan currently sits second after being downgraded on her triple Axel attempt. She was able to accumulate 68.08 points, ahead of Finland's Laura Lepisto, currently third with 64.30.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the night was the disastrous short program of Olympic champion Yu-Na Kim. She opened strong with a triple Lutz-triple toe loop combination, but then under rotated a triple flip and botched her layback spin, and unusual mistake for the defending champ. Kim also lost her balance on her spiral sequence, giving up more valuable points. She is currently 7th, more than 10 points behind Nagasu but still very much in the gold medal hunt, as her personal best free skate score is more than 15 points higher than any of the ladies competing.

American champion Rachael Flatt doubled the second jump in her planned triple flip-triple toe loop combination and scored 60.88 points, good enough for 6th place at the moment.

Full results

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