Figure Shin Min-kyu wins Junior GP surprise…


The next generation of men’s singles figure skaters has emerged to follow in the footsteps of Cha Jun-hwan (Korea University).

Born in 2008, Min Min-kyu (Kyungshin Joong) became the first Korean male to win the Figure Junior Grand Prix in seven years.

The South Korean skater earned a technical score (TES) of 77.04, a performance score (PCS) of 78.59 and a total score of 155.63 in the men’s single free skate at the third edition of the 2023 International Ice Skating Union (ISU) Figure Junior Grand Prix on Monday (Sept. 9) in Turkuye Istanbul.

He added a short program score of 75.67 to his final total of 231.30 points to win the gold medal ahead of Rio Nakata of Japan (222.35 points).

Min received personal bests in the short program, free skate, and final total.

He improved his personal total from last year (209.59 points) by 21.71 points.

This is only the third time in history that a Korean male single athlete has won the Junior Grand Prix.

Lee Jun-hyung became the first Korean male athlete to win gold at an ISU-sanctioned international event when he won the inaugural Junior Grand Prix in August 2014, followed by Cha Jun-hwan in 2016.

Now, seven years later, Min Min-gyu has continued the tradition.

On the day, Min performed an “all-clean” performance, executing every task perfectly.

He landed a clean triple axel with three-and-a-half rotations to earn a base score of 8.00 and a GOE of 1.37, and then cleaned the second task, a triple flip-triple toe-loop combination jump.

She continued her performance with a clean double axel-triple toe-loop combination jump.

His nonjumping tasks were also flawless. He executed a flying camel spin at the highest level of difficulty, level 4, followed by a correo sequence and a change foot combination spin (level 4).

The last task of the first half, a triple loop jump, was also executed perfectly.

The second half, which carries a 10% bonus, was also flawless. He cleanly executed the triple lutz, triple flip jump, and triple salko-double axel sequence jump with no mistakes.

His final change foot camel spin also earned him a level 4.

Although Min did not perform a quadruple (four rotations) jump like Nakata and other athletes who finished second on the day, his focus on execution and fundamentals paid off.

Shin Min-kyu raised expectations by placing third and fourth in the first two Junior Grand Prix Series events last season, and finished fourth in the second Junior Grand Prix event earlier this month.

He made his presence felt at the third event, just a week after the second, where he won his first major title. 파워볼


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