WFSC 2016, Day 3 : Freestyle Battle 

The Freestyle Battle competitions were held during the third day of the WFSC 2016. Russian skaters were the strongest during the Senior Battle while Chinese athletes won the Junior finals.

Senior Men : Sergey Timchenko added one more gold medal to his collection, becoming the Battle World Champion for the second year in a row.

Credit : Carroll Wong
Credit : Carroll Wong

Timchenko brothers repeated their great results from last year, taking two first places of the Senior Men's Battle final. Sergey confirmed his Battle World Champion title from last year, leaving the second place for Alexander, who is now the double Battle Vice-World Champion. The double World Champion (2012-2013), Ye Hao Qin (Chn) improved his results from last year, when he finished 5th, and won the bronze medal of this World Championship. The Junior Vice-World Champion 2015, Valerio Degli Agostini (Ita), who joined the senior category this year, went directly to the big final and finished fourth.

 

Lorenzo Guslandi from Italy, who was 4th in the big battle final twice, in 2015 and 2014, won the consolation final this time, taking the 5th place. The last year's bronze medalist, Kanchanok Sawangsri (Tha) finished on the 6th position. Andrey Shitov (Rus) performed his best result ever, taking the total 7th place and leaving the 8th position to Michal Sulinowski (Pol).

Senior Women : Daria Kuznetsova is the triple Battle World Champion!

Credit : Alexandre Lebrun
Credit : Alexandre Lebrun

Daria Kuznetsova (Rus) stayed unbeaten in the Battle final and won the gold medal of this discipline for the third year in a row. Her team mate, Ksenia Dubinchik (Rus) improved her result from last year when she was third, and won her first silver WFSC medal ever. Klaudia Hartmanis from Poland added to her collection one more bronze medal of this Championships, taking the third place of the big final. The bronze medalist of the WFSC 20313, Zoe Granjon (Fra) finished on the fourth position.

 

Alba Garcia (Esp), who was fourth last year, won the consolation final this time and took the 5th place, leaving the World Champion 2010, Boiko Maryna (Ukr) on the 6th position. Russian skaters Oksana Pervenenok and Nadezhda Zapuskalova showed their best results ever, taking 7th and 8th places respectively.

Junior Men : Zhang Hao brought one more gold medal to China!

Credit : Carroll Wong
Credit : Carroll Wong

Chinese Zhang Hao repeated his results from last year, becoming the Junior Battle World Champion for the second year in a row (don't forget his World Champion title in 2014 when there was no Junior category). His team mates, Gu Kun Qi and Li When Zhuo showed a great level and won silver and gold medals respectively. Lorenzo Degli Agostini (Ita) improved his results from last year when he was 6th and finished on the fourth position.

Junior Women : Lin Jia Xin received her first WFSC gold medal ever!

Credit : Carroll Wong
Credit : Carroll Wong

Chinese Lin Jia Xin performed her best results ever, winning the big final of the Junior Women's battle! The Junior Vice-World Champion 2015, Sofia Bogdanova (Rus) repeated her result from last year and won another silver medal for Russia. Her team mate, Anna Smirnova won the bronze medal, taking the third place and leaving Chinupun Nichakan from Thailand on the fourth position.

Thanks to the first two places of the Junior Battles, China is still on the first place of the medal standings, winning 5 gold, 6 silver and 4 bronze medals of this World Championships.

Polina Semenova for WorldSlalomSeries.com

Special thanks for the information and details to  Alexandre Lebrun - rollerenligne.com

Photos by Carroll Wong and Alexandre Lebrun

November 2016