Ikura KUSHIDA 櫛田 育良 (JPN) | Junior Women Free Skating | Riga 2024

Now to one of my favorite performances of this short program for sure, wondrous yesterday for Okura Koshida. We'll skate to the same music I believe from last season, music from The Little Prince. Okura Koshida from Japan completes a very challenging free skate for this brilliant artist. I think I will remember the short program that she delivered yesterday above perhaps many if not all of the pieces of choreography and this The Little Prince, the free program that she used last year appears to be even better in terms of the program component scores but it's blatantly obvious that the technical element score here will be a better number to have to accept. She doesn't have as streamlined a jump take off in each of the jumps and if any can rival though some of the artistic sensibility that she has, the refinement in the way in which she's held her fingers and now which she expresses is just so much sensitivity here where things started to look suspect the opening triple lutz this is followed up with triple sacco which was okay and then back spiral into the place where things really started to see her drift further and further from the potential to be on the podium. I see no running edge at all on the double loop at the end of the three jump combo and a mistake in the relatively simple double axel. Such a shame because this is a skater that brings so much and I would have to see her content for a Junior Grand Prix final spot. We'll see, I'm not sure if she's assigned another Junior Grand Prix but certainly the result here will make it difficult to achieve that. A real brilliant advert in terms of the presentation component score which she committed to despite the mistakes as she tries to consider the ramifications of the mistakes made. There'll be a mandatory two-point deduction for falls. I think the component score should still be better despite the mistakes of those that have competed but the tech score will be tough. If she is to cling on to a medal she would need 110 points but she's taking a brave face as she awaits her score. This is the seventh place for Ikura Koshida in the pre-skate, fourth place overall. We have to assume that the Junior World Champion dropped that down one further number but skating fans will really appreciate what Ikura Koshida has to offer and we wish her all the very best for the rest of her training.