USA’s Isabeau Levito performs her Short Program at the 2022 World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Tallinn, Estonia, on April 16, 2022.
2022 World Junior Figure Skating Championships: Women
USA’s Isabeau Levito skated to the lead in the Women’s Short Program at the 2022 World Junior Figure Skating Championships on Saturday in Tallinn, Estonia. Jia Shin of South Korea is currently second followed by teammate Ahsun Yun.
Levito received an edge call on a triple flip, but the rest of her routine to The Swan was solid with the exception of a one-point deduction for a time violation. The 2021 Junior Grand Prix (JGP) Courchevel II Champion landed a very good double Axel and triple Lutz-triple loop while displaying level four spins and footwork throughout. She earned many high grades of execution (GOE) and posted a new personal best of 72.50 points.
“I feel very happy about my performance!” said Levito. “I feel I skated the way I wanted to and I didn’t hold back. I am very satisfied. I trained extra hard on the performance aspect in my programs and everything improved a lot.”
“My coach gets a lot of music and shows me, then from there we dive into types of music like softer or stronger music,” she said of her music choice. “When I heard this song, I was very excited and I wanted to do it this year. It is something I didn’t do before. Since I was very excited, I was very eager to learn the new movements and ballets style for this program. It’s very fun to compete it.”
Shin was solid, landing a triple Lutz-triple toe, double Axel and triple flip in her quality skate to La Boheme. The 2021 JGP Baltic Cup bronze medalist earned a level four on all three spins while racking up positive GOES on all elements to score a new career-best of 69.38 points.
“I was a little nervous for the competition, but I did my best for the performance and that is what brings me here,” said Shin. “I practice really hard every time, not only the jumps, but also the non-jump elements, the spins and the other things. This is the secret that made me better and got me here.”
Yun gave a clean performance to La Strada, landing a triple Lutz-triple toe, double Axel and triple flip. The layback spin and footwork were graded a level four and the 15-year-old from Namyangju City also posted a personal best (66.28).
“I am very happy I performed a clean program today,” said Yun. “I am a bit disappointed in some parts, I lost a few levels, two spins were a level three. I will do my best for the free skating and do what I want to do – which is to skate clean. I am so happy to be here and show you at the World Junior Championships what I wanted to show.”
USA’s Lindsay Thorngren landed a good double Axel, but the triple flip received an edge call and the back-end of the triple Lutz-triple toe was slightly underrotated. However, the 2021 JGP Courchevel Champion earned a level four on all three spins in her routine to “Writing’s on the Wall” and finished fourth with 66.14 points.
Seoyeong Wi of South Korea delivered a good performance to music from The Grandmaster and The Last Airbender which featured a clean double Axel, triple Lutz-triple toe and triple flip. Two spins and the footwork were graded a level four and the 2019 Asian Open Junior Champion scored 66.09 points for fifth place.
Estonia’s Niina Petrokina put out a clean performance to “Je N’Attendais Que Vous” which featured a clean double Axel, triple Lutz-triple toe and triple flip. The 2021 Warsaw Cup silver medalist earned a level four on two spins and placed sixth with a new personal best of 65.90 points.
Nina Pinzarrone of Belgium is currently in eight place (65.90). The national junior champion underrotated the front end of a triple Lutz-triple toe and she fought for the landing of a triple flip, but her routine to “I Will Wait For You” was highlighted by good level-four spins and footwork.
Kimmy Repond of Switzerland sits in eighth place (60.82) followed closely by Japan’s Rion Sumiyoshi (60.62) and USA’s Clare Seo (60.61).
