2016 World champion Evgenia Medvedeva defended her Russian national title with a record-breaking score of 233.57 points despite performing an illegal combination jump in the free program. Debutant Alina Zagitova won silver (221.21) and Maria Sotskova captured the bronze (219.90).
What are your thoughts on how the ladies performed?
MoreMedvedeva was in class of her own on both days of the competition. The 17-year-old approached all her jumps without the slightest hesitation, and towards the end of her long program performance, executed a triple Salchow - triple toe loop - triple toe loop combination, in which the third jump received zero points as it was already the third triple toe loop in her program and she had already done one three-jump combination.
“I know, I know,” she said on the press conference. “I think I managed to surprise even my coach; nobody expected me to go for it. But I know that the rules have been changed this year and they allow you to do more triple toe loops. Previously, the entire element would have received zero points, but now only the third triple toe would be discarded and I thought since I can do it, why not try?”
What are your thoughts on how the ladies performed?