Nagoya / Japan

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Russia’s Alexandra Trusova led a Russian sweep of the Junior Ladies podium at the ISU Junior Grand Prix Final in Nagoya (JPN). Alena Kostornaia took the silver and Anastasia Tarankova claimed the bronze medal. All three Ladies competed in their first Junior Final.

Trusova underrotated and fell on her opening quad Salchow, but rallied back to produce a triple flip-double toe-double toe, triple Lutz-triple toe, two more triples and excellent spins and steps, but she wobbled on the triple Lutz-triple loop combination. The Muscovite posted a personal best with 132.36 points and racked up 205.61 points overall to win the title. “Not everything worked out today and I am upset about missing the quad Salchow and I also made a little error on my combination. But I am happy that I was able to win the Junior Grand Prix Final,” Trusova said. “I’ll work on my jumps, I want to do the triple Axel and quad toe and I want to perfect the quad Salchow,” she added.

Kostornaia’s program to ‘Stella’s Theme’ by William Joseph featured seven triple jumps including two triple-triple combinations as well as level-four spins and footwork. The 13-year-old set a new personal best of 132.93 points and won the Free Skating, but remained in second overall on 204.58 points. “I am pleased with my performance today, but actually, to be honest, it could be better. Well, it means that I must work harder and that is what I am going to do after coming home. As for difficult elements in my program, of course, it is hard to train them, but when you do them on practices every day, more and more, it becomes easier,” Kostornaia shared.

Skating to ‘Sarabande Suite’, Tarakanova landed seven clean triples as well and also had a new personal best with 131.74 points. She remained in third place on 199.64 points overall. “I am glad that I could calm down and skate clean both of my programs here. I was really nervous that I even didn't feel my feet on the ice. The short program was clean, so I really wanted to show a clean free program too. But of course, I'm not going stop, I will work hard to be better and better with every competition,” the Muscovite commented.

Rika Kihira (JPN) became the first Lady to land a triple Axel-triple toeloop in ISU competition, but she singled her second planned triple Axel and came fourth (192.45 points). Daria Panenkova (RUS)

and Sofia Samodurova (RUS) put out excellent performances as well to finish fifth (191.16 points) and sixth (187.74 points) respectively.