South Korean figure women’s singles hopeful Kim Chae-yeon (Surigyo) moved closer to her dream of a first medal on the ‘senior stage’ with a second-place finish in the short program on her debut at the International Ice Skating Union (ISU) Senior Grand Prix.
Kim earned a technical score of 38.30 and a performance score of 32.01 for a total of 70.31 points in the short program at Skate Canada, the second event of the 2023-2024 ISU Senior Grand Prix, in Vancouver, Canada, on Monday (Feb. 28).
Kim finished second behind Kaori Sakamoto (Japan – 75.13 points), the bronze medalist at the Beijing Winter Olympics and winner of the World Championships in March, who led the short program.
Kim’s 4.02-point lead over Japan’s Rino Matsuike (66.29), who finished third in the short program, means she will be able to pursue her dream of a first medal in her senior Grand Prix debut with the free skate on Monday.
Kim, who won a bronze medal at the 2022 ISU Junior Grand Prix Final last December, has shown promise on the senior stage with a fourth-place finish at the Four Continents Championships in February and a sixth-place finish at the World Championships in March.
Making her Senior Grand Prix debut in the short program, Kim performed a clean, scoreless performance.
After earning a GOE of 0.85 on her first task, a double axel (base score of 3.30), Kim cruised through her triple lutz-triple toeloop combination jump (base score of 10.10) with a GOE of 1.18.
Kim, who performed her Flying Camel spin at the highest level of difficulty, Level 4, was disappointed to receive an Attention to Edge on her final jump, a triple flip (base score of 5.83), but still earned a GOE of 0.45.
Kim finished her performance with a level 3 for her layback spin and a level 4 for her step sequence and change foot combination spin.
In the next men’s event, Korean men’s singles standout Cha Jun-hwan (Korea University) earned a TES of 45.06, a PCS of 42.12 and a deduction of one for a combined score of 86.18 in his short program.
Cha finished in second place, 3.38 points behind leader Sota Yamamoto (JPN – 89.56).
Cha got off to a good start, scoring a GOE of 1.94 on his first task, a quadruple salco-double toeloop combination jump (base score 11).
However, after executing his second jump, a quadruple toe loop (base score 9.50), he fell on the landing and lost 4.61 GOE points.
Cha, who performed a flying camel spin to a level 4, earned a GOE of 1.83 points for his triple axel (base score 8.80) in the extra credit section, before finishing his performance with a change foot sitspin, change foot combination spin, and step sequence, all at the highest difficulty level of level 4. 토토사이트