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There's no more Japan. South Korean figure skating flew the Korean national flag in Harbin. It was also a thrilling come-from-behind victory.
Cha Jun-hwan (Korea University) and Kim Chae-yeon (Surigo), the Korean figure skating men's and women's singles players, won the gold medal side by side at the Harbin Winter Asian Games in 2025.
To put it bluntly, the silver medal seemed more likely for both athletes. It was because of the rivalry with Japan. Japan usually sent out second-class figure skaters to the Winter Asian Games. This time, he dispatched key players, defying expectations. In the men's single, Yuma Kagiyama, the silver medalist at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, and in the women's single, stingray Sakamoto, who won the International Skating Union (ISU) World Championships for the last three consecutive years.
Kagiyama's ISU-accredited personal peak is 310.05. It is higher than Cha Jun-hwan (296.03 points). In particular, Kagiyama performs two high-level four-round jumps in the short program and four in the free skate. Cha Joon-hwan will run one in the short program and two in the free skate. There is a big difference in the difficulty of the program itself. The same goes for Sakamoto. It is a personal high of 236.09 points. She overwhelmed Kim Chae-yeon (208.47 points).
I opened the lid. Concern seemed to become a reality. Cha scored 94.09 points in the short program. Ranked 2nd. The gap was different from Kagiyama (103.81 points). Kim Chae-yeon also scored 71.88 points in the short program. He came in second after Sakamoto (75.03) in the rankings.
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The Taegeuk Warriors were strong. She jumped over Japan in free skating. Kim Chae-yeon performed flawlessly in the women's single free skate.
Kim Chae-yeon was the 23rd of the 24 participants to play on the day. I went over the ice to the 'Whisperers from the heart'. He got off to a strong start with a double axel running two and a half laps. The triple loop, triple flip-double toe loop-double loop combination jump, and triple salco were performed neatly. Four jump tasks were successful without shaking. Kim Chae-yeon played flying change foot combination spin to level 4, the highest difficulty.
The postponement of the second half with an additional 10% point was also perfect. Kim Chae-yeon cleaned the triple lutz-triple toe loop combination jump. The basic score was 11.11 and the performance score (GOE) was 1.65. The jump task was completed by neatly succeeding the triple lutz-double axel sequence jump and triple flip. It gave off explosive energy with a fast step sequence (level 4). Following the Correo sequence, Kim Chae-yeon introduced the Flying Camel Spin (Level 4). He finished his performance by receiving Level 4 up to the change foot combination spin.
On the same day, Kim Chae-yeon received a total of 147.56 points, including 79.07 points in technical scores (TES) and 68.49 points in artistic scores (PCS). He beat Sakamoto (211.90 points) with the final 219.44 points combined for the short program. As a result, South Korea won its second consecutive women's figure skating championship, following the most empty seats at the Sapporo Games in 2017. Above all, Kim Chae-yeon set all new records for her short program (71.39 points), free skating (139.45 points), and the highest total score (208.47 points, previous scores).
After the game, Kim Chae-yeon said, `I wanted to beat Sakamoto at least once. It's such an honor to beat Sakamoto in such a big competition. It's the best because it's the best record in the Asian Games. You'll probably get a better score if you revise a little more and fill it out in the future. I got a good result in the Asian Games, which I used to practice for. The Olympics is a competition that I've dreamed of since I started figure skating. It is the biggest goal of my career. I really want to participate in the Olympics and have a better game."
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Cha Jun-hwan followed suit. In the men's single free skate of this competition, 15 athletes competed in the competition, except for Kim Hyun-gyeom, who withdrew. Cha Jun-hwan was the 14th overall. He performed to the melody of the free skating program "Ballada para un Loco" (Ballada para un Loco).
Cha Jun-hwan ran the first task, the high-level quadruple salco perfectly. The quadruple toe loop was also successful. I tried to run the triple lutz-triple loop combination jump, but when I couldn't attach the back jump, I finished with a lutz solo jump. After that, he performed the triple axel that went three and a half laps without much shaking. The elegant step sequence (level 4) caught the eye of the audience.
He also did a clean job of acting in the second half with 10% extra points. We handled the triple flip-single Euler-triple Salco combination jump and triple axel-double axel sequence jump perfectly. It has a change foot combination spin (level 3). In the final jump task, triple flip, he ran with a triple flip that he couldn't attach in the first half. The landing was slightly shaken and underrotated (when the number of turns of the jump was less than 90 degrees or more and 180 degrees or less), but it was not a big mistake. Finished the performance with Correo Sequence, Flying Carmel Spin (Level 4) and Flying Change Foot Combination Spin (Level 4).
Cha Jun-hwan received a total of 187.60 points, including 99.02 points in technical scores (TES) and 88.58 points in artistic scores (PCS). Earlier, he won the gold medal with a final total score of 281.69 points, including the scores of the short program.
He said "I was satisfied with the content of my game, and I have no regrets at all. It didn't matter what the result was. I didn't record my personal highest score, which was my goal, but I'm glad that I got a satisfactory result in free skating. I thought that if you hope for something great and are greedy, it's not going down the path of effort. There was a dangerous moment during the acting, but I think I overcame it well. After recovering from the injury, I will try to improve the difficulty of programming and perform a stable game." With the gold medal, Cha Jun-hwan will also receive military service benefits. I can shake off the burden of continuing my career.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
