Figure skater Yu Shuran looked puzzled as disco music filled the Malaysia National Ice Skating Stadium (Myniss) on Sunday (Aug 27). Seconds later, back ramrod straight, she steeled herself as strains of Lana Del Rey’s “Young and beautiful” – the correct song for her free skating routine – started up.

Minor distraction out of the way, the Singaporean figure skater finally got her gold medal campaign underway at the Kuala Lumpur SEA Games.

Ranked first after the short programme on Saturday with her score of 53.28, the Beijing-based skater was clearly the one to beat among the nine-strong field.

After all, Shuran, 17, had finished sixth at the Asian Winter Games in Sapporo earlier this year, before becoming the first Singaporean to qualify for the World Figure Skating Championships in March.

Out to add a first SEA Games gold to her resume, Shuran did not disappoint some 1,000 spectators who turned up to witness the sport’s debut at the regional Games.

Skating to Lana Del Rey’s slow tune first before turning on the heat with “Crazy in love” from the Great Gatsby movie soundtrack, she glided and spun her way into the judges’ hearts, scoring 82.24.

Sitting with coach Gao Song while waiting for her scores, a nervy Shuran could only manage a smile as the scores came on, with her total of 135.52 clinching both Singapore’s and the SEA Games’  first winter sports gold.

Teammate Chloe Ing made it a 1-2 finish, scoring 82.93 – the highest in the free skating segment – for a total of 128.61 to clinch the silver.

The Philippines’ Alisson Krystle Perticheto won the bronze in 113.40.

While she had her game face on throughout the music mix-up and routine, it was a different scene backstage. Said Shuran who was the last in her group to skate after her victory: “I didn’t watch them (Perticheto and Ing). No, I never watch (other skaters). I always want to focus on myself.

“I don’t want any outside factors affecting me, especially since I tend to psyche myself out easily so I try to avoid all noise. When Alisson’s scores were being announced, I covered my ears.”

Despite her win, Shuran was not happy with her routine: “I’m really happy with my rank and the result, that’s what I came here to do.

“But I’m pretty disappointed with my free skate today, I popped two jumps and popping (doing two jumps instead of three) is probably my worst habit. It probably affected my score so there’s a lot to improve on my free skate and short programme.”

Coach Gao Song is hoping for his charge to qualify for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics next February. If she succeeds, Shuran, who trains with Gao at a Beijing skating club run by world champion and 2010 Olympic silver medalists skaters Pang Qing and Tong Jian, will be the first Singaporean to compete at the Winter Olympics.

“She can still qualify for the 2018 Olympics…she needs to be ranked in the top six at the qualification event in Germany,” said Gao.

Meanwhile, despite losing out on the gold, Ing was happy to clinch a one-two finish for Singapore. “Yesterday in the short programme, I was a little disappointed with myself so today I wanted to skate my best,” said the Canada-based teen.

“I’m very happy to win a silver…being able to medal means a lot to me. Figure skating is not as prominent here and we came and showed that we (Singapore) have skaters and finished 1-2 here at the SEA Games. This is the first stop to bringing figure skating to Singapore and South-east Asia.”

Source:
courtesy of TODAY

by LOW LIN FHOONG IN KUALA LUMPUR

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