SOCHI, February 20. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia's Adelina Sotnikova has won gold in ladies' figure skating.

The athlete, who ranked second after the short program, scored 149.95 points in free skating. All in all, the 17-year old Russian showed a result of 224.59 points.

Silver went to Vancouver Olympic champion Yuna Kim of South Korea (219.11). Italian Carolina Kostner secured bronze (216.73). Russian Yulia Lipnitskaya ranked fifth with 200.57.

 

 

Short program

Lipnitskaya, who fell while performing a jump, ranked only fifth after the short program (65.23). Sotnikova came second with 74.64 points. Before the free skating program, Yuna Kim was leading (74.92), and Carolina Kostner was third (74.12).

According to Lipnitskaya’s coach Eteri Tutberidze, the athlete made a technical mistake in her short program, not to mention the war of nerves. “When performing the flip, Yulia made a technical mistake, she came too close to the banking board,” the coach said. “I’d rather not delve into specifics, but this may happen to any athlete. The girl is trooper, she composed herself after the fall, got up and finished the program.”

Yelena Buyanova, Sotnikova’s coach, stated that the performance of her fosterling in the free skating program proves that Russia has a huge reserve in this discipline. “Adelina was very excited, she wanted to show her best performance,” the coach said. “She is busy bee, and in the recent days she honed her programs till they shine. Now the thing is done.”

Adelina Sotnikova said she felt a great responsibility before Russian fans. “Only this complicated my task when performing the short program,” the figure skater confessed. “In comparison with Russia’s national championship, which I won, the atmosphere in the Iceberg Skating Palace is totally different. The audience is standing and screaming!”

 

Gold in Sochi

Earlier, 15-year-old Yulia Lipnitskaya won gold in team figure skating event. She showed best result in both short (72.90 points) and free skating (141.51) programs. Adelina Sotnikova did not take part in the team figure skating competition.