Taipei, March 15 (CNA) The 2017 World Junior Figure Skating Championship sponsored by the International Skating Union (ISU) kicked off at the Taipei Arena Wednesday, attracting the participation of 184 skaters from 43 ISU member-states.
The men's and pairs short programs were the two events held on the opening day of the championship, which Taipei is hosting for the first time ever and which will run through March 19.
Taiwan's Tsao Chih-i (曹志禕) managed to take 20th place in the men's short program event, despite a fall during his routine. The rank allowed him to advance to the free skating event scheduled for the following day.
At the age of 19, it is Tsao's last competition as a junior skater.
A total of 45 skaters competed in the short program, and only the top 24 qualified to enter the free skating competition.
Dmitri Aliev of Russia, who is the ISU Junior Grand Prix Final champion, won first place in the men's short program, while Jun Hwan Cha of South Korea and Alexander Samarin of Russia trailed behind by a small gap.
All the three achieved new personal best scores of 83.48 points, 82.34 points and 82.23 points, respectively, in Wednesday's event, according to the organizer.
2016 World Junior silver medalist Nicolas Nadeau of Canada came in seventh with a score of 77.20 points, while defending champion Daniel Samohin of Israel made errors on all three of his jumping passes to finish 16th with 67.00 points.
As of press time, no scores had been reported in the pairs event, which did not begin until 7 p.m.
(By Lee Chin-wei and Elizabeth Hsu)
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