The defending champion was taken down today. Russia's Julia Lipnitskaia had to settle for second after teammate Elena Radionova defeated her for the gold at the 2013 World Junior Figure Skating Championships. They led a Russian sweep of the medals at the competition. The ladies were last up in the competition - earlier in the day, the American men swept the podium for the first time in the history of the competition.
Ladies' free: Play-by-play/Videos
It hasn't been the best idea to come back after winning the Junior World title on the ladies' side. Mao Asada won it in 2005 and finished second the next year. Caroline Zhang won it in 2007 and finished second the following two years. Most recently, Adelina Sotnikova won it in 2011 and finished third last year to Lipnitskaia. And today, Lipnitskaia takes the silver to Radionova. But both had to pull up from down in the standings to top the leaderboard.
Radionova, fifth after the short program, skated a nearly flawless free skate to vault herself to the gold with a final score of 169.71. Her only mistake was an underrotated second half of her opening triple lutz-triple toe combination. But she was otherwise clean. She becomes the third Russian skater in the past four years to win the ladies' event at Junior Worlds.
Fourth after the short, Lipnitskaia, still recovering from a practice injury earlier in the season, hit six triples in her free skate to move up to win the silver. Technically, her free skate was not as difficult as that of Radionova, nor was it as difficult as the free skates she skated earlier in the season. But it was good enough to put her in second with a 165.67.
Anna Pogorilaya made it three Russians on the podium with the bronze, besting overnight leader Samantha Cesario. Cesario held a slim lead coming in to the free skate but had five of her jumps called underrotated, including three of her six triples, which cost her over five points in base value. She finished in fourth, one place ahead of teammate Courtney Hicks. The third American in the event, Yasmin Siraj, moved up from 13th to finish 11th overall.
LADIES (final standings)
1. Elena Radionova RUS - 169.71
2. Julia Lipnitskaia RUS - 165.67
3. Anna Pogorilaya RUS - 160.32
4. Samantha Cesario USA - 154.55
5. Courtney Hicks USA - 152.92
6. Gabrielle Daleman CAN - 149.39
7. Satoko Miyahara JPN - 147.42
8. Alaine Chartrand CAN - 144.38
9. Rika Hongo JPN - 142.62
10. Nathalie Weinzierl GER - 139.10
11. Yasmin Siraj USA - 139.08
12. So Youn Park KOR - 135.42
13. Laurine Lecavelier FRA - 131.25
14. Jenni Saarinen FIN - 129.81
15. Ziquan Zhao CHN - 126.11
16. Brooklee Han AUS - 125.62
17. Anna Khnychenkova UKR - 121.62
18. Alisson Krystle Perticheto PHI - 119.76
19. Hae Jin Kim KOR - 115.22
20. Angelina Kuchvalska LAT - 114.11
21. Ivett Toth HUN - 113.34
22. Xiaowen Guo CHN - 107.55
23. Sabrina Schulz AUT - 105.38
24. Josefine Taljegard SWE - 104.37
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