Sofia Frank encountered problems in her free skate, eventually ending her World Junior Figure Skating Championships debut in 22nd place with 137.00, Sunday at the Tondiraba Ice Hall in Tallinn, Estonia.
The 16-year-old standout looked to shatter the century mark as she posted a new personal best of 53.86 just the previous day in the short program. Instead, she struggled hard in her final program.
Frank at first glance once more nailed her opening jumps of a triple lutz-double toe loop combo and a triple flip, but the latter was adjudged for unclear edge once more.
The Fil-American skater then followed it up with better jumps, only to fall on her attempt at a triple toe loop. She also had a step out in the following triple lutz and had some rotation issues on her double axel part of a triple jump series.
Nonetheless, the jumps she nailed and her execution on the spins saw her take 39.22 for the technical elements.
Frank’s overall presentation of Wedding Vow by Abel Korzeniowski was affected by these mishaps after she ended with just high 5’s in all of the criteria for program components with skating skills scoring the highest at 5.82.
Eventually, the 2021 Colorado Springs bronze medalist hauled 44.92 points in the PCS for the said total of 83.14, way off her personal best of 99.94.
Short program gold medalist Isabeau Levito of the USA still managed to win the overall title with 206.55, despite slipping to second in the free skate.
South Korean teen sensation Shin Jia snagged the free skate gold to come so close to upending Levito with 206.01, just 0.55 away from the title. USA’s Lindsay Thorngren leaned on her strong free skate to round up the overall podium with 199.42.
