From March 19 – 25, this year’s World Figure Skating Championships took place in Milan, Italy. Shoma Uno and Wakaba Higuchi took second place in the men’s and women’s events, respectively. Satoko Miyahara placed third in the women’s event.

Shoma Uno placed second in the men’s event with a total score of 273.77, 47.63 points behind American Nathan Chen. Shoma injured his right ankle while practicing for Worlds. His short program received a score of 94.26, placing him in fifth. Instead of his planned quad salchow / triple toe loop combo, Shoma did a triple salchow / double toe loop combo. After the short program, Shoma said that his reserved skate was “a little easy.” He added that he planned to do his full free skate, four quad jumps included. “I won’t give up on my original routine until the very end,” he said.

Shoma’s free skate was given a score of 179.51, placing him in second, 39.95 points behind Nathan. He fell three times during his free skate. “It (my free skate) wasn’t much of a performance, but I was able to finish strong. It might have looked ugly, I never gave up and remained in command,” said after his skate. “I made quite a lot of mistakes, but in the end I was able to fall back on my training. The condition of my foot was a lot better tonight, and the mistakes I made were more of a failure to make adjustments.”

After being left off the Olympic team in favor of Kaori Sakamoto, Wakaba Higuchi placed second in the women’s event with a total score of 210.90, 12.33 points behind Kaetlyn Osmond of Canada. Wakaba’s short program was given a score of 65.89, placing her in eighth. She fell while trying to do a triple lutz / triple toe loop combo. “After that my triple flip and my spins were perhaps the best I’ve ever performed,” she later said. “That was the product of my continuing practices after mistakes. I’m pleased because I got a higher score than I thought I would.”

Wakaba’s free skate received a score of 145.01, putting her in second place and 5.49 points behind Kaetlyn. “At most other competitions I have cried at the end but this time there was no need to cry,” Wakaba said after the event.

Satoko Miyahara placed third with a total score of 210.08. Her short program was given a score of 74.36, placing her in third, 5.15 points behind Russia’s Alina Zagitova. Satoko began with a triple flip / triple toe loop combo, but wobbled slightly on the transition and underrotated the toe loop. “I was trying to force it and tightened up. I knew I under rotated it,” she said. She continued, “I had a strong desire to perform to my best with everything else because I messed up my first jump.”

Satoko’s free skate was also ranked third, receiving a score of 135.72. She was surprised that she made the podium, saying, “After finishing my free program, I didn’t expect to get this bronze medal so it is very unexpected, but I also think I was stiff and the jumps were small so again I think I have to do more, I have many things to do.”

In the men’s event, Kazuki Tomono finished in fifth place with a score of 256.11. Keiji Tanaka finished in 13th place with a 236.66.

In pairs, Miu Suzaki & Ryuichi Kihara finished in 24th place with a score of 53.33. They did not advance to the free skate.

In ice dancing, Kana Muramoto & Chris Reed finished in 11th place with a score of 164.38.

And this concludes the 2017 – 2018 season! Later this year, the 2018 – 2019 season will begin!

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