Isabelle Gamez and Alexander Korovin finished their debut in the 2023 World Figure Skating Championships on a good note, with an 18th-place finish overall at the conclusion of the free skate on Wednesday at the Saitama Super Arena in Japan.
The first-ever Southeast Asian skaters to qualify for the pinnacle of the sport bounced back from their disappointing stint just a month ago at the Four Continents, where they finished dead last with 113.48 points.
This time, Gamez and Korovin not only made the free skate with a better score of 53.29 but they also closed the tournament with a 93.78 in the free skate, for a total of 147.07, which is definitely a new season’s best for the pair.
A strong start with a triple twist lift saw the judges awarding 2 and 3 GOEs before they laced it with a huge throw triple toe loop that racked up the points in the routine, set to the tune of Exogenesis: Symphony by Muse.
Gamez and Korovin tried to follow this up on the next throw jump — a triple salchow — but Gamez fell on her landing, resulting in not only a -5 GOE across the board but also a 1.0 deduction.
The Filipino pair, however, closed the routine out with a good reverse lasso lift, and the forward inward death spiral was as smooth as it could get.
Gamez and Korovin booked this debut in the Worlds after reaching the technical minimums in the Challenge Cup in Tilburg, Netherlands.
