Free skating competition will be held at the same location on the 5th
Figure skating men’s and women’s singles figures Cha Jun-hwan (Korea University) and Shin Ji-ah (Sehwa Girls’ High School) took first place in the short program at the second national team selection event for the next season.
Cha Jun-hwan scored 48.00 technical points (TES), 43.53 artistic points (PCS), and 1 deduction point in the men’s single short program at the KB Financial Korea Figure Skating Championships 2025 National Men’s and Women’s Comprehensive Championships and National Team 2nd Selection held at Uijeongbu Ice Rink in Gyeonggi-do on the 4th. The points totaled 90.53 points.
He beat 2nd place Lee Si-hyung (81.42 points, Korea University) and 3rd place Kim Hyeon-gyeom (81.30 points, Han Advertising) by a large margin. 4th to 7th place are Choi Ha-bin (Solsaem Middle School, 80.49 points), Seo Min-gyu (Gyeongshin High School, 79.18 points), and Lee Jae-geun (Suri High School, 74.90 points).
If Cha Jun-hwan does not make a major mistake in the free skating held on the 5th, he will secure the right to participate in the International Skating Union (ISU) World Championships held in Boston, USA in March.
Tickets for the World Championships will be given to the first and second men’s singles players in this competition. The national team for the next season will be determined by adding up the scores from the first national team selection match held in November of last year and the results of this competition.
Cha Jun-hwan also took first place in the first round of selection with 264.59 points. Seo Min-gyu, who was in second place with 244.23 points at the time, ended up in 5th place out of 6 people due to a series of jumping mistakes that day.
Cha Jun-hwan neatly performed the first difficult jump task of the day, the quadruple salchow. However, he fell while attempting a triple Lutz-triple loop combination jump and received a deduction of 2.95 points.
Afterwards, Cha Jun-hwan gradually regained his sense of stability and successfully completed the second half of his acting.
In the women’s match that followed, Shin Ji-ah cruised to her third consecutive victory.
Shin Ji-ah ranked first in the short program with a total of 72.08 points, adding 38.49 technical points and 33.59 expression points. He beat Chae-yeon Kim (Suri High School, 70.43 points), Yu-jae Kim (Pyeongchon Middle School, 67.76 points), Hae-in Lee (Korea University, 63.98 points), Yu-seong Kim (Pyeongchon Middle School, 63.08 points), and Ah-sun Yoon (Suri High School, 61.90 points).
Shin Ji-ah confidently succeeded in the triple Lutz-triple toe loop combination from the beginning. I made clean jumps without any major mistakes, including a double axel. The only disappointing scene was receiving an attention (caution with edge use) judgment in the final jumping task, a triple flip.
If Shin Ji-ah maintains first place in the free skating, she will win her third consecutive overall championship.
However, even if they are in the top three, they will not be able to participate in this year’s Senior World Championships because they do not meet the age standard (17 years old as of July 1, 2024). The same goes for Kim Yoo-jae, who took third place in the short program.
In the case of the women’s division, the competition for rankings that can wear the Taegeuk symbol is expected to be fierce until the final day. Previously, in the first competition, Kim Chae-yeon took first place with 213.51 points, Shin Ji-ah (203.68 points) took second place, and Kim Yu-seong (199.11 points) took third place.
The World Championship qualification goes to the next ranked athlete who meets the age criteria.
(Seoul = News 1)