Ladies free
Ting Cui’s bronze medal performance highlighted Saturday’s competition for the United States at the World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Zagreb, Croatia.
Competing in her second World Junior Championship, and having placed 11th at last month’s Four Continents Championships, Ting Cui earned 126.72 points in the free skate for 194.41 total points.
Cui’s program was propelled by a triple Lutz-triple toeloop combination and a triple flip-euler-triple Salchow combination. She also earned three Level 4 spins.
Cui became the first U.S. lady to win a medal at the World Junior Championships since Gracie Gold won silver in 2012.
Hanna Harrell capped off a breakthrough 2018-19 season with a 114.01-point free skate, totaling 176.69 points overall and a seventh place finish.
With Cui and Harrell’s performances, the United States earned three spots in the ladies competition at next year’s World Junior Championships.
Russia’s Alexandra Trusova and Anna Shcherbakova finished first and second, respectively.
Free Dance
The American duo of Avonley Nguyen and Vadym Kolesnik had a strong free dance, earning 102.72 points in the free dance for 167.90 points overall and a fourth place finish. Both scores were ISU personal bests. They were awarded two Level 4 lifts on Saturday, a Level 4 spin and Level 4 twizzles.
U.S. junior champions Caroline and Gordon Green finished seventh overall, scoring 153.05 total points. Like Nguyen and Kolesnik, they received positive grades of execution on each of their elements in their free dance, which earned 94.23 points.
Eliana Gropman and Ian Somerville finished 12th in the competition with 139.96 total points.
Canada’s Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha won the competition, followed by Russia’s Elizaveta Khudaiberdieva and Nikita Nazarov in second and Sofia Shevchenko and Igor Eremenko in third.
