Stockholm (Sweden) Mar27: Skaters representing the Figure Skating Federation of Russia filled the podium following the ladies' free skate in the ISU World Figure Skating Championships here on Friday.
Despite her training sessions being marred by falls, Anna Shcherbakova claimed the gold after finishing with a total of 233.17 points.
The Russian managed to hold on to her lead after the short program earlier this week even though she fell when performing a quadruple flip.
2015 world gold medalist Elizaveta Tuktamysheva climbed one position to take silver, despite falling after a triple flip.
Aleksandra Trusova finished third with a total score of 217.20. Placed 12th after the short program, the 16-year-old climbed onto the podium thanks to a string of quadruples. If she hadn't fallen while doing two of them, she might even have climbed to the top of the podium.
Gold medalistShcherbakova was not only beaming with joy after her performance, but was also clearly shocked that she had claimed gold in her very first World Championship.
"Honestly, I don't know what to say now. I tried to do my best, and fight for every element, but I'm not really satisfied with my performance," said the Russian, who turns 17 on Sunday.
"It was a real fight for me. From the first element, things were not like I wanted and with every following element I understood that now I must try to do my best in every element, and not to lose points."
Chen Hongyi of China climbed one position and finished 21st with a total score of 162.79.
Source: Xinhua