Shcherbakova wins as ROC duo finish 1-2 in women's singles figure skating at Beijing 2022

AFP

Reigning world champion Anna Shcherbakova skated a clean segment to win the women's singles figure skating at the Beijing Olympic Winter Games, holding off a strong challenge from compatriot Alexandra Trusova on Thursday evening.

It has been the third straight gold in the women's singles for the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) after the ROC taking one-two at PyeongChang 2018 through Alina Zagitova and Yevgenia Medvedeva, and Adelina Sotnikova winning gold on home ice in Sochi.

Performing to "Ruska, The Master and Margarita, Lacrimosa," Shcherbakova produced a quad Flip-triple Toeloop combination and a quad Flip, as well as level-four spins and footwork to post a season best of 175.75 points, bringing her score to a winning total of 255.95.

Another ROC figure skater Trusova came up with the highest free skate score of 177.13 on Thursday after the 17-year-old featured five quads of four different rotations, bringing her total score to 251.73 for the silver.

The ROC, however, was stopped from making a clean sweep on podium as otherwise hot favorite Kamila Valieva who won the short program, failed to survive the huge pressure and fell in free skate to drop to the fourth. Japan's Kaori Sakamoto took the bronze medal on 233.13 overall with 153.29 in free skate.

Trusova was the first women skater to have landed a quad Lutz in 2018 and quad Flip in 2019 in competition, while Valieva made history in the women's free skate of the team event as the first woman to land a quadruple jump at the Olympics.

The 15-year-old Valieva, who was just cleared to compete on Monday, committed the major error at a quad toeloop in the middle of her routine where she also delivered an under-rotated triple Axel and had her hands on ice while landing an earlier quad toe.

Also the new European champion, Valieva, who helped the ROC to win the team event 10 days ago, thus scored just 141.93 points in free skate, near 37 points less than her score of the same segment in the team event and a bigger margin of 43.36 to her season best.

Valieva had been provisionally banned on February 8 when a sample taken in December last year returned a positive result for banned substance trimetazidine, before the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) lifted it the next day.

Following a hearing of the Ad Hoc Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the CAS declined to impose a provisional suspension on her on Monday, but the International Olympic Committee said there would be neither flower nor medal ceremony if Valieva finished in the women's top three and the team event's medal ceremony will only be organized once the case of Valieva has been concluded.