South Korean figure skating hopeful Shin Jia (Yeongdongzhong) won silver at the International Ice Skating Union (ISU) Junior Grand Prix Final for the second consecutive year.
Shin earned a combined technical score of 68.18 and artistic score of 63.49 for a total of 131.67 points in the women’s single free skate at the 2023-24 ISU Figure Junior Grand Prix on Monday in Beijing, China.
Shin, who finished first in the short program with 69.08 points, combined her freeskating scores for a total of 200.75 points to take the silver medal behind Mao Shimada (JPN), who scored 206.33 points. Shimada won the Junior Grand Prix Final for the second consecutive year after last year.
Although she did not win the title, it was the second consecutive silver medal for Shin, following her silver medal at last year’s Junior Grand Prix Final.
It is the first time in 18 years since Kim Yeon-ah that a South Korean athlete has medaled at the ISU Junior Grand Prix Final two years in a row.
The Junior Grand Prix Series is held seven times a season and athletes can compete in a maximum of two events. The Junior Grand Prix Final is a “king of the hill” event where only the top six athletes from the two events combined qualify.
Shinjia won gold at the second and fifth Junior Grand Prix events this season, and added a silver medal at the Final.
Shinjia and Shimada were evenly matched in the free skate.
Shimada landed a triple axel and a quadruple toe loop, both difficult jumps, to earn a high technical score.
Some of her jumps were ruled quarter-landed (where the rotation of the jump falls short of the 90-degree level) and underrotated (where the rotation of the jump falls short by more than 90 degrees but less than 180 degrees), but she was able to pull off two difficult jumps to win the upset.
Shin Jia was also ruled to have quarter-landed on a couple of jumps, but overall put in a clean performance. However, she was unable to get past Shimada.
“It feels great to get a good result this year after last year,” Shin told All That Sports after the competition, “I was very nervous before the free skate, so I tried to focus on myself, and I was able to get a good result by staying focused until the end.”
Kim Yoo-sung (Pyeongchon Middle School) finished fourth with a total of 190.48 points, while Kwon Min-sol (Mokdong Middle School) finished sixth with 183.06 points.
