Sofia Samodelkina, the leader of Kazakhstan's women's figure skating team, made her debut at the second stage of the International Skating Union (ISU) Grand Prix in the Canadian city of Kelowna, infohub.kz reports.
The 19-year-old athlete was among the 12 competitors in the event. In the short program she cleanly landed a double axel and a triple flip, while on her triple Lutz-triple toe loop combination the judges called a quarter under-rotation on the second jump.
Samodelkina received 71.84 points for her skate. The result is a new personal best for her in the short program at ISU level. She surpassed her previous top mark, set at the October Denis Ten Memorial in Almaty, by almost 2.5 points.
After the short program Samodelkina sits fifth. Japan's Mao Shimada leads with 82.11 after landing a triple axel, an ultra-C element, meaning one of elevated difficulty.
American Isabeau Levito holds second place (78.50). Estonia's Nina Petrykina is third (77.24), with Japan's Saki Miyake fourth (71.95).
The free programs will be skated overnight from November 1 to 2. The skates begin at 02:00 Kazakhstan time.