Tuktamysheva takes worlds gold with ease

SHANGHAI: Russian teenager Elizaveta Tuktamysheva took gold at the World Figure Skating Championships in Shanghai on Saturday, convincingly beating her rivals in a remarkable comeback season.
The 18-year-old European Champion scored 132.74 in the final segment to finish with 210.36 overall, some distance in front of second placed Satoko Miyahara (193.60) of Japan and Russia’s Elena Radionova (191.47) in third.
The victory marks an incredible turnaround for the teen star, who failed to make the Russian team for last year’s Sochi Olympics.
“I am full of emotion right now. This is an amazing moment,” she said following the win.
Dancing to “Batwannis Beek” and “Sandstorm”, the emerging star of women’s skating looked less confident than in her opening short programme Thursday, but still did enough to top the segment, with Americans Gracie Gold (128.23) and Ashley Wagner (127.20) in second and third.
Tuktamysheva was shaky on her opening triple Lutz-double toe loop-double loop combination at the start of her programme, but remained on her feet.
She then nailed a triple Lutz and triple flip before producing another mistake, over-stepping a triple toeloop-triple toeloop combination.
The Russian recorded the third highest ladies short programme score in history in the opening round when she became one of only a select few women athletes to perform the risky triple axel jump in competition.