Canada’s Osmond on top of skating world
ASSAGO, Italy — Kaetlyn Osmond ended Canada’s lengthy drought at the world figure skating championships.
The 22-year-old from Marystown, N.L., won the women’s singles crown Friday, scoring 150.50 points for her Black Swan routine to finish with 223.23 points overall. Osmond stood fourth following the short program Wednesday.
“This feels unbelievable for me,” said Osmond. “Being world champion is something I never expected.
“I was fighting to skate clean and fighting to hit the podium.”
Osmond, a bronze medallist at last month’s Winter Games in South Korea, became the first Canadian woman to win gold at the world championship since Karen Magnussen in 1973.
Osmond is the fourth Canadian woman to ever win a world title. Petra Burka took gold in 1965 and Barbara Ann Scott registered consecutive wins in 1947 and 1948.
“Canada has such a strong history of competitors in all disciplines,” Osmond said. “Just that gold medal was always a fight for the ladies. Hopefully, now we’ll be able to be champions a lot more.”
Osmond’s jammed packed routine opened with two combos, a triple flip — triple toe and double Axel-triple toe. Those were followed by a triple Lutz, triple loop, triple flip, triple Salchow-double toe-double loop combo and another double Axel.
“It took a lot of mental focus today to do that, it’s been a really long year. I wanted to show that my bronze at the Olympics wasn’t a fluke,” Osmond said.
Japan’s Wakaba Higuchi was second at 210.90, with compatriot Satoko Miyahara finishing third at 210.08.