Carolina Kostner (ITA) won the short program at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships in Milan, Italy. Here is her first reaction: I am amazed and happy any joyful to be here. For me it’s a big honor, like a big cherry in the cake. I already felt amazing even before my performance because skating in my home country is so, so special and so emotional. You could feel the silence, you could feel the tears. I could feel the support and the passion. I remember, 15 years ago when I started to compete internationally, nobody came to watch figure skating in Italy and now we fill up this big venue.
(On her plans for the free skate) I hope I’ll be able to show all the elements and want to show how much I love skating.
Alina Zagitova (RUS, second in short program):
I am not that happy with my performance today. The combination (triple Lutz-triple loop) could have been better and I felt I was tight overall in the program. (on coming off her victory at the Olympic Games) It was hard to get back into the training process. After the Olympics, we had a lot of events going on. We had a reception with our president Vladimir Putin, who awarded us with a medal, we got presents, every day something was going on. (on sitting in second behind Carolina Kostner) Carolina Kostner is my idol, I am looking up to her and I am very happy for her that she was able to do her best perf ormance today.
Satoko Miyahara (JPN, third in short program):
I was very calm during the performance but I made mistakes on the combination jump and I will do better in the free program. I did my best performance at the Olympic Games and I wanted to do the same here but it didn’t go as I expected. It’s the last competition of the season so I want to do my best so that at the end of the season I have no regrets.