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Bryan Armen Graham in Boston

Medvedeva wins world title with record-setting free skate – as it happened

Evgenia Medvedeva
Evgenia Medvedeva captured gold at the world championships on Saturday night. Photograph: Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images

That’s all for now. Be sure to check back later for a full report and thanks as always for following along with us!

Medvedeva wins gold, Wagner wins silver, Pogorilaya wins bronze!

Here are the final standings as the skaters take the podium

Figure skating worlds
Ashley Wagner becomes the first American woman in a decade to win a medal at worlds or the Olympics. Photograph: ISU

24) Ashley Wagner (USA)

Free skate: 142.23 (223.86 overall, currently in second place)

Now it’s up to the veteran Wagner, who is skating to a medley of songs from the Moulin Rouge soundtrack: Diamond, One Day I’ll Fly Away and The Show Must Go On. A wonderfully skated program save for one two-footed triple flip. The crowd is loving it and she’s clearly feeding off them. She scores a season-best score of 142.23 – also a personal best – to lift her into second place and the silver! Gold will finish fourth.

23) Gracie Gold (USA)

Free skate: 134.86 (211.29 overall, currently in third place)

A positively electric atmosphere in TD Garden as Gold takes some last words of advice from her coach Frank Carroll. She’s into her long program – The Firebird by Igor Stravinski – and she falls on the second jump of her opening combo: the triple lutz-triple toeloop combo. First major mistake of anyone in the final group. Surprisingly high score will lift Gracie to third, meaning the American drought will end one way or another tonight.

22) Anna Pogorilaya (RUS)

Free skate: 139.71 (213.69 overall, currently in second place)

Pogorilaya – in a costume evoking both Anna from Frozen and Jasmine from Aladdin – turns in another completely clean skate and if the pressure wasn’t on Gold and Wagner before, it certainly is now. Everything was clicking: the triple lutz-triple toe combo to open it from the triple loop-double toe combo in the middle to the triple flip that closed the show. Everyone has skated very well in the final group.

Updated

21) Satoko Miyahara (JPN)

Free skate: 139.89 (210.61 overall, currently in second place)

Now it’s the 18-year-old Japanese skating to Un Sospiro by Franz Liszt. Absolutely flawless jump execution and a completely clean program, all light and grace. She brings the crowd to their feet. This final group is bringing it. An extremely high quality on display as it was throughout the final two groups of Wednesday’s short program. Clearly Miyahara is next in line to step into the gaping shoes of Mao Asada. It’s not enough for first, but she moves into second to bump Mao off the podium. Three skaters left: Pogorilaya then the Americans.

20) Evgenia Medvedeva (RUS)

Free skate: 138.11 (209.81 overall, currently in first place)

Now it’s the pre-event favorite, the 16-year-old phenom competing in her first worlds and skating to a pair of tracks from the “W.E.” soundtrack. And she skates completely clean. What a statement. The triple flip-triple toe, the triple lutz, the double axel-double toe-double toe: perfectly executed. And an ovation from a crowd that clearly wants to see the American women’s drought end tonight. Just a wonderful showcase and the scores will no doubt be huge. And they are. A season-best 150.10 that lifts her into first over Radionova (209.81) and Mao (200.30). Gold and Wagner will need personal-best scores tonight to eclipse either of the Russians.

Updated

19) Elena Radionova (RUS)

Free skate: 138.11 (209.81 overall, currently in first place)

Last year’s bronze medallist skates a clean but somewhat detached program to a medley from the Titanic. The judges sure liked it: she’s more than nine points clear of Mao (200.30). That feels high. Rika Hongo drops to third.

Final warm-up: scores with six skaters left

This is it! Six skaters left: Elena Radionova, Evgenia Medvedeva, Satoko Miyahara, Anna Pogorilaya, Gracie Gold and Ashley Wagner. Here’s the scores as things stand.

Figure skating worlds
The scores with six skaters left. Photograph: ISU

18) Gabrielle Daleman (CAN)

Free skate: 128.30 (195.68 overall, currently in third place)

No major mistakes for the 18-year-old from Toronto as she earns a season-best 128.30 to climb into third place. Final group of six skaters to come ...

17) Zijun Li (CHN)

Free skate: 119.13 (184.52 overall, currently in fourth place)

The 19-year-old from China skates to a medley of selections from The Artist soundtrack. A strong skate with confidence and consistency. Aside from a two-footed triple flip, not much to downgrade. The score of 119.13 is the best of her season and lifts her to fourth place. And with that result, America’s Mirai Nigasu is assured a top-10 finish. (Here’s a look at her skate from earlier.)

16) Rika Hongo (JPN)

Free skate: 129.26 (199.15 overall, currently in second place)

The 19-year-old skates a program to Riverdance that has the crowd clapping from nearly start to finish and ends with them on their feet, Japanese flags dotting the stands. Not her most polished performance but it’s punctuated by a gorgeous jump sit, fueled by pure joy and fiery energy. A downgrade on the final double axel-double toe combo is the only reason why she’s is second and not first right now.

15) Elizabet Tursynbaeva (KAZ)

Free skate: 121.99 (183.62 overall, currently in third place)

The 16-year-old Kazakh and Orser/Wilson disciple – competing in her first senior worlds, weighing in at a slight 66lbs and skating to Papa Can You Hear Me?, skates a clean program save for a fall on a triple flip. Still, a season-best score that lifts her into third. Lots of potential here: remember the name.

14) Mao Asada (JPN)

Free skate: 134.43 (200.30 overall, currently in first place)

And now even louder cheers for the legendary Mao, a three-time world champion (2008, 2010, 2014) and fan favorite skating to Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, who nails that triple axel right out of the box to screams from the crowd. Sublime, sublime, sublime. The great woman. She falls to her knees after her final spin as the ice is littered with flowers and gifts from the stands. She’s made to wait an extra few seconds for her score but it’s worth it: a season-best 134.43 for a combined score of 200.30 overall – good for first place. Not bad for a comeback year. If not for that short program ...

And here’s a look at her heat map.

13) Mirai Nagasu (USA)

Free skate: 120.91 (186.65 overall, currently in first place)

Loudest cheers of the night – by a wide margin – for 22-year-old Mirai Nagasu, a last-minute replacement for the injured Polina Edmunds. She’s skating to a soundtrack medley from the Great Gatsby (the new one) starting with Beyonce and Andre 3000’s remake of Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black. Nails her opening two elements, a triple flip-triple toeloop combo followed by a triple lutz, to roars from the crowd. Beautifully skated program and a standing ovation for Mirai with American flags popping up through the capacity crowd. Only a slight downgrade on a triple loop near the tail end but otherwise the Californian crushed it. A total score of 186.65 lifts Nagasu into first place for the moment.

Mirai Nagasu brought down the house with her free skate.

Updated

Ice resurfacing: scores with 12 skaters left

Here’s a look at the standings through 12 skaters. We’ve got 12 more left including all the medal contenders. The third group will be on the ice for warmups at 9.04pm – or exactly 10 minutes from now – with American skater Mirai Nagasu due on ice at 9.11pm.

ISU
The results through 12 skaters. Photograph: ISU

Updated

12) Roberta Rodeghiero (ITA)

Free skate: 100.51 (158.41 overall, currently in fourth place)

Not too many over mistakes for the 25-year-old Italian but she doesn’t seem too happy with her score. Apparently struggled with skating last after two groups, mirroring Patrick Chan’s troubles last night.

11) Angelina Kuchvalska (LAT)

Free skate: 104.21 (158.99 overall, currently in third place)

Not bad for the 17-year-old from Latvia who finished fourth at the European championships. An interesting continent-hopping medley here: El Tango de Roxanne (from the Moulin Rouge soundtrack) into the Love Theme from the Romeo and Juliet soundtrack). Seemed like the music skipped or was poorly edited, however, as the clapping crowd here in the arena was thrown off at one point right as the momentum was building. Cleanly skated save for two minor errors and she moves up to third place.

10) Da Bin Choi (KOR)

Free skate: 103.90 (159.92 overall, currently in second place)

Another Les Mis medley. The classics never die. The senior worlds debutante moves into second place by skating a clean program after just hanging on to her opening triple lutz.

9) Amy Lin (TPE)

Free skate: 89.05 (146.55 overall, currently in sixth place)

The 16-year-old from Chinese Taipei, skating to Yo Soy Maria (from “Maria de Buenos Aires”) by Astor Piazzolla, falls twice in her senior world championships debut: on a triple lutz at the start and a triple salchow near the end.

Updated

8) Nicole Rajicova (SVK)

Free skate: 116.59 (157.82 overall, currently in first place)

A lovely performance by the 20-year-old – who competes under the Slovakian flag but was born and raised in Garden City, New York – to Maurice Jarre’s Dr Zhivago soundtrack. Best skate of the night so far and the judges agree, handing down a score of 116.59 that lifts her to the top of the leaderboard at 157.82.

Updated

7) Alaine Chartrand (CAN)

Free skate: 102.15 (157.82 overall, currently in first place)

The second group is underway with the 20-year-old from Brockville, Canada, a pupil of Michelle Leigh and two-time Olympic silver medallist Brian Orser. She certainly has the crowd behind her, but an error-strewn performance from the outset (including a fall on a triple lutz) keeps her from scoring higher.

Updated

6) Anna Khnychenkova (UKR)

Free skate: 100.16 (154.02 overall, currently in second place)

A nice recovery by Khnychenkova from a costume malfunction involving a rebellious hair band and she follows through with a cleanly skated program save for one minor error: a step-out on a double axel-single loop-triple salchow combination. The program is wonderfully performed to Exogenesis Symphony Part 3 (Redemption) by Muse.

5) Anastasia Galustyan (ARM)

Free skate: 82.83 (136.07 overall, currently in fifth place)

A few under-rotated jumps by the 16-year-old Armenian making her senior world championships debut and that drops her bottom with one skater to go in the first group.

4) Niki Wories (NED)

Free skate: 91.01 (141.87 overall, currently in third place)

TD Garden is no longer a Les Miserables-free zone. Only took four skaters. A nicely performed long program by the 19-year-old coming off a 20th-place finish at the European championships. She crashes to ice on an under-rotated triple flip near the end of it, but she’s rewarded for her ambition and is given a season-high score of 91.01. Is guaranteed to improve off last year’s 32nd-place finish at worlds.

3) So Youn Park (KOR)

Free skate: 101.97 (154.24 overall, currently in first place)

A wonderful performance by the 18-year-old Korean to a medley of three songs from the Romeo and Juliet soundtrack: Come, Gentle Night; The Check of Night; A Thousand Times Good Night. Fab dress to boot. She’s in first despite several under-rotated jumps.

2) Ziquan Zhao (CHN)

Free skate: 86.87 (139.67 overall, currently in second place)

Another senior world championship debutante, another purple dress. This time it’s the 18-year-old from China skating to the Impossible Dream. Only a few minor mistakes but not technically challenging enough for a higher score. A disappointing reaction in the Kiss and Cry booth.

Updated

1) Viveca Lindfors (FIN)

Free skate: 102.75 (152.93 overall, currently first place)

A nice and tidy opening performance by the 17-year-old Lindfors, who is competing in her first senior world championships (after an eighth-place finish at the European championships) and more importantly is wholly unrelated to the legendary Swedish actress of the same name who. Skating to Madonna’s Don’t Cry for Me Argentina, she moves through her program cleanly. She scores 102.75, about seven points off her season best, for a combined score of 152.93. Never easy to open to show.

Updated

The first group of skaters is on the ice – that’s Finland’s Viveca Lindfors (50.18), China’s Ziquan Zhao (52.80), South Korea’s So Youn Park (52.27), the Netherlands’ Niki Wories (49.86), Armenia’s Anastasia Galustyan (53.24) and Ukraine’s Anna Khnychenkova (53.86) – as the TD Garden continues to fill.

Lindfors is first up at 7.07.

Tonight's schedule

Good evening and welcome to the world figure skating championships at TD Garden where tonight a ladies’ singles figure skating champion will be crowned. The title is up for grabs with only six points separating the top six skaters.

It’s been more than a decade since a female skater from the United States medalled at either the Olympics or worlds, the longest such drought in the Winter Olympics era (since 1924). Could tonight be the night someone snaps the drought? Gracie Gold (first) and Ashley Wagner (fourth) believe so.

“It’s the perfect spot for me to be,” Wagner said during an early-afternoon practice yesterday at Steriti Memorial Rink. “I think I’m in a great spot leading into tomorrow. I have to push through to the very end.”

The first warm-up will begin 12 minutes from now at 7pm local time.

Ladies' free skate schedule
The draw for tonight’s free skate order took place shortly after the conclusion of Thursday’s short program. Photograph: ISU

Bryan will be here shortly. In the meantime why not check out his report off Thursday’s short program.

And below have a look at the scores entering tonight’s free skate (with the complete scoring breakdown here).

  1. Gracie GOLD USA 76.43
  2. Anna POGORILAYA RUS 73.98
  3. Evgenia MEDVEDEVA RUS 73.76
  4. Ashley WAGNER USA 73.16
  5. Elena RADIONOVA RUS 71.70
  6. Satoko MIYAHARA JPN 70.72
  7. Rika HONGO JPN 69.89
  8. Gabrielle DALEMAN CAN 67.38
  9. Mao ASADA JPN 65.87
  10. Mirai NAGASU USA 65.74
  11. Zijun LI CHN 65.39
  12. Elizabet TURSYNBAEVA KAZ 61.63
  13. Roberta RODEGHIERO ITA 57.90
  14. Amy LIN TPE 57.50
  15. Nicole RAJICOVA SVK 56.56
  16. Da Bin CHOI KOR 56.02
  17. Alaine CHARTRAND CAN 55.67
  18. Angelina KUCHVALSKA LAT 54.78
  19. Anna KHNYCHENKOVA UKR 53.86
  20. Anastasia GALUSTYAN ARM 53.24
  21. Ziquan ZHAO CHN 52.80
  22. So Youn PARK KOR 52.27
  23. Viveca LINDFORS FIN 50.18
  24. Niki WORIES NED 49.86

Updated

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