Tokyo – Miki Ando won the women’s title at the World Figure Skating Championships on Saturday, leading a 1-2 finish for the host country with Japanese teammate Mao Asada second.
Kim Yu-na of South Korea, who led after the short program, got the bronze medal. Defending champion Kimmie Meissner of the United States was fourth.
Ando didn’t do a much-anticipated quad, but her seven triples to a Mendelssohn violin concerto earned her a total score of 195.09.
That was enough to edge Asada, who had the best marks in the free-skating portion of the competition.
Skating last, after Asada had excited the crowd, the 19-year-old Ando kept her poise and delivered a solid performance. She had a triple-triple to start and ended up crying when she saw her winning score.
Asada, fifth entering the free skate, scored 194.45 points for the silver medal.
Asada tried a triple axel, but was slightly two-footed, and also underrotated a combination. But she then zipped through the rest of her routine to Hungarian music, ending with a three-jump combination in the final 30 seconds that earned bonus points under the new system.
She beat Ando in the free skating 133.13 to 127.11.
“I was very impressed by myself,” Asada said. “I love skating at home.”
Kim struggled through 30 seconds in the middle of her routine.
She looked solid in her first two minutes. But then she fell on the first jump of what was to be a three-jump combination, fell again and had another combination ruled scoreless.
‘”My condition was worse today. My legs felt heavy. But I had a good season but I am happy with it,” said Kim, who won the Grand Prix final over Asada and Ando last December.
Meissner had a couple of jumps undervalued in a flamenco routine.
“I had to skate after Mao did awesome. I couldn’t tune out the screams,” Meissner said. “It was not my best. I can do better. So I will regroup and come back next year.”
