Sumika KANAZAWA (JPN) | Junior Women Free Skating | Gdansk 2025

Second place after the short program, Sumika Takanazawa. In the short program, Sumika was the skater who raised her game from practice. Let's hope she can do the same in the free skate. Personal best is 120.40. She prepares herself for the free program, which she'll skate to Peter Pan. Japan's Sumika Kanazawa. She is the youngest woman in this final flight of six skaters. And that a really remarkable skate because she did not let anything go. She fought hard. And I think to me, it was perhaps evident that she had to cling on as Kaoru Kawada supports her at ringside. She had to fight for everything. There wasn't the freedom and the abandon that we saw in her first assignment. I was impressed by the way she tackled it. No, absolutely. For sure. And I think that she had not been in that position before where she has, you know, she has the lead, but she's seen or heard these scores coming up. And how do you defend it? Well, you only defend it by skating clean, but you're a little bit tight. She fought all the way through that. And although she did everything, it wasn't to the quality that we've seen in the past. Not really a low quality at all. Still very good, but maybe not her very, very best. To be honest, it's startling that she clung on to everything the way she did. She's obviously a competitor. That was a competitive spirit for the triple toe in the end of that less than stellar triple lutz. The triple loop was nice. And there's the triple flip a little bit later with that foot touching the ice. Just losing a little bit of GOE on the score. Then fighting through that landing up into the double axel. Here, second triple lutz. Forward on the toe pick. Not a lot of speed, but she somehow turns out those two double toe loops. And what a treat we have had in this final group to be able to, you know, debate Sumika Kanazawa continuing to lead the field at this stage. We have been treated to so many great skates, but she's a delight, you know, irrespective of the result here. She's a real character that I enjoy seeing. And she's obviously got fans because she continues to have cuddly toys with the costume of her free skate. Tinkerbell, the Tinkerbell, the cuddly. Now she waits for those numbers and the personal best is 120.40. Go ahead, Mark. Well, she needs a 126.42. And this is a 124.15. That is fourth in the free program. That's the season's best. But total competition score is 188.41. And that'll put her in third place with one skater to go. So will she stay on the podium or will she drop off? We take a look at UJ Kim, Sophie Jolene von Felten, and Deja Kanazawa.