Figure Skater Ko Na-yeon Finishes 5th in Junior GP 7th Event Women's Singles

South Korean figure skater Ko Na-yeon (Uijeongbu Girls' High School) recorded her highest ranking of the season at the 2026 International Skating Union (ISU) Figure Skating Junior Grand Prix 7th event.

Competing in the women's singles free skating at the Olivia Ice Hall in Gdansk, Poland, on the 10th (KST), Ko received 65.10 points in technical elements (TES) and 54.26 points in program components (PCS) for a total of 119.36 points.

Breaking her personal best ISU official free skating score, Ko combined this with her short program score (58.02 points) for a total score of 177.38 points, finishing in 5th place.

Sumika Kanazawa of Japan won the championship with 196.37 points, while Korean-Canadian Leah Cho (195.76 points) and Elizabeth Divan of Switzerland (189.11 points) took 2nd and 3rd places, respectively.

Having finished 10th (1 ranking point) at the 4th event last month, Ko significantly raised her ranking to 5th place (7 ranking points) in her second appearance of the series.

However, with a total of 8 ranking points for the season, Ko slipped to 22nd place and failed to qualify for the Junior Grand Prix Final, the year-end showdown given to the top six skaters.

Additionally, Jang Ha-rin (Dojang Middle School, 9 ranking points, 18th) and Hwang Jung-yul (Suri High School, 4 ranking points, 33rd), who competed in the junior grand prix women's singles this season, also failed to secure qualification for the Grand Prix Final, resulting in all South Korean women's singles skaters missing out on the event.

This marks the first time since the 2021-2022 season that South Korean female single skaters have failed to qualify for the Junior Grand Prix Final.

However, the Junior Grand Prix Final for the 2021-2022 season was canceled just before its opening due to the aftermath of COVID-19.

After leaving some regret with a fall in the short program, Ko delivered a stable performance in the free skating.

Starting smoothly with her first element, the triple lutz-triple toe loop combination jump, she earned positive GOEs (grades of execution) on all three of her opening jumps, including the triple loop and triple lutz.

Ko cleanly executed her triple toe loop-double axel-double axel sequence jump attempted in the bonus section, though she incurred a 1.29-point deduction on her triple flip jump due to an edge attention call (unclear edge) and a quarter landing ruling.

Although she failed to secure a medal after safely completing her remaining elements, Ko achieved a meaningful milestone by setting her personal best free skating score.

(Photo: Capture from ISU broadcast, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.