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South Korea's next-generation figure skating ace, Choi Ha-bin, has won a thrilling comeback gold medal at the Junior Grand Prix. By successfully executing high-difficulty quadruple jumps in succession, she easily broke her personal best score.
Reporter Lee Jeong-Chan has the story.
[Reporter]
After finishing fifth in the short program due to a jumping mistake, Choi Ha-bin delivered an overwhelming jumping performance in the free skate.
She frontloaded her routine with the quadruple lutz—a high-difficulty quad jump she became the first South Korean skater to successfully land last season. She built momentum by cleanly executing her opening element, a quadruple lutz-triple toe loop combination, followed by a solo quadruple lutz.
She then successfully landed three quadruple jumps in a row, including a quadruple toe loop, securing a high score and executing all subsequent elements without error.
As her dynamic routine came to an end, the audience, who had been watching with bated breath, rose to their feet in a standing ovation.
[It's hard to find the words to describe the routine we just saw. It's phenomenal, it's brilliant, it's unbelievable. Call it whatever you want, it's more than that.]
With 170.20 points in the free skate and a total of 246.41 points, Choi surpassed her previous personal best by about 15 points, soaring straight to first place overall. Following her win at the sixth leg last season, she claimed her second career Junior Grand Prix title.
[Choi Ha-bin / Figure Skating Junior National Team: I will work even harder to achieve good results at the upcoming 4th Junior Grand Prix in Turkey as well, so I can make it to the Junior Grand Prix Final. Thank you so much for all your support.]
Lee Jae-keun also placed second with 229.77 points, standing side-by-side on the podium with Choi Ha-bin.
(Video by Park Gi-deok, Design by Cho Su-in)
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