Figure skater Nicole Schott achieved the best result of her career at the world championships in Montpellier, France. The Essen native finished tenth on Friday evening (03/25/2022) after the freestyle. With her placement, she secured the German figure skaters at the upcoming WM Two starting places in Japan in 2023.
Sakamoto wins – First medal for Belgium
The new world champion is the Japanese Kaori Sakamoto, who was already leading after the short program. The 21-year-old Olympic bronze medalist showed a flawless and atmospheric run and had already secured gold before her last jumping elements. With 236.06 points, she was almost 20 points ahead of the competition.
Loena Hendrickx from Belgium came in second (217.70 points), making her the first WM– Medal won for Belgium. Alysa Liu took bronze from the USA (211.19 points), who improved from fifth place in the short program to third place with a jumping festival.
The Russian title holder of 2021, Beijing Olympic champion Anna Shcherbakova, was absent, as were all the other Russian starters. Because of Russia’s war against Ukraine, Russians and Belarusians became WM locked
Schott: Almost flawless, not at the top level
Nicole Schott, the only German starter in the field of 24 figure skaters, showed an almost flawless freestyle. But she only jumped a triple Salchow twice, a triple toeloop she ended up underexcited. With a comparatively low program score of 64.00 points, she was unable to keep her sixth place from the short program. In the field of the last starter group, in the Schott for the first time at a WM was allowed to walk, the German had the lowest value.
With 120.65 points for her freestyle, which she to the music “Rain, in Your Black Eyes” run by Ezio Bosso, she also stayed about three points below her personal best. In the end, the five-time German champion Schott was still able to claim tenth place and thus the best WM– Looking forward to the result of their career. “Especially after the Olympics, such a result is very nice for me”said Schott, who was only 17th in Beijing.