Reigning Olympic champ Kim Yu-na gave herself high marks for her performance in the World Figure Skating Championship Thursday which marks her return to ISU competition after a two-year hiatus.
The judges were not quite as impressed but the crowd love it, rewarding her ‘Kiss of the Vampire’ short routine with a standing ovation at the Budweiser Gardens arena.
Although the South Korean superstar topped the field in the women’s opening round at the ISU world figure skating championships ahead of defending champ Carolina Kostner, the adjudicators found fault with the level of difficulty for her spins and were stingy with their performance quality scores.
Kim earned 69.97 points, well off her record score of 78.50 set in the Olympic year. Still, she is well-positioned to win her second world title in Saturday?s final considering the subpar result of Mao Asada, her long-time archrival from Japan.
“I would give myself a full 100 per cent,” Kim said when asked to assess her performance.
Asada, undefeated this season in ISU competition after struggling to retool her jumps the previous two years, is back in sixth place with 62.1 points.
Kim off to promising start at Worlds
