'Second Kim Yu-na' debuts in the spectacular senior world championship, Shin Ji-ah is in 8th place... Lee Haein is 13th

*This content was translated by AI.

Shin Ji-ah (18, Sehwa Girls' High School), the next-generation ace in figure skating, made her splendid debut by making it to the top 10 on the stage of her first career senior world championship.

Shin Ji-ah scored 136.65 points in the women's single free skate at the 2026 International Skating Union (ISU) Figure Skating World Championships held at the O2 Arena in Prague, Czech Republic on the 28th (Korea time) with 71.05 points in technical score (TES) and 65.60 points in artistic score (PCS).

Shin Ji-ah, who was ranked 13th with 65.24 points in the previous short program, successfully finished her first senior season by raising her ranking to 8th overall with 201.89 points.

Shin Ji-ah, who made her senior debut this year after playing on the junior stage until last year, showed a flawless performance to Franz Liszt's "Love Dream."

Starting with the first task, the double axel, he performed the triple lutz-triple toe loop combination jump perfectly and gained momentum. In the second half of the extra point section, there was a mistake in handling the triple flip as a single, but he did not falter and accumulated points by playing the remaining jumps and spin tasks at level 4.

On the other hand, Lee Hae-in (21) of Korea University, who participated together, left a regret. Lee Hae-in, who finished 10th (68.50 points) in the short program, made three jump mistakes in the free skate, scoring a total of 116.68 points. Lee Hae-in, who scored 185.18 points overall, fell to 13th place and failed to achieve the top 10 for the sixth consecutive year at the World Championships.

As a result of this competition, Korean women's figure skating will maintain two berths for next year's world championships. The World Championship distributes three tickets for the next season when the sum of the two players' rankings is less than 13 and two tickets for the next season when they are less than 28. The sum of the rankings of Shin Ji-ah (8th) and Lee Hae-in (13th) was 21, which met the 28th or lower rule.

Sakamoto Kaori (Japan), who announced his retirement after this stage, won the championship. Sakamoto won the gold medal with a total score of 238.28 points, a personal high, finishing first in both the short and free events. Sakamoto, who has won three consecutive world championships since 2022, had a tearful retirement ceremony on the final stage, retaking the throne. The silver medal was taken by Chiba Monet (228.47 points from Japan) and the bronze medal by Nina Finzarone (215.20 points from Belgium).

Meanwhile, Lim Hae-na and Kwon Ye (Gyeonggi General) group, who performed ice dance rhythm dance, scored a total of 69.83 points and ranked 19th out of 31 teams to qualify for free dance, which is given to the top 20 teams. France's Laurent Fournier Bodry-Guillaume Sidron Joe, the gold medalist of the last Winter Olympics, won the first place in the event.

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*This content was translated by AI.