Ladies' Turn

Carolina Kostner seems to be the obvious answer to the question "Who will win this year's Worlds?", but if there's one thing that can be sure about figure skating is that there is no such thing as "will", there's only "is likely to". Will the Asians re-claim their gold medals? Can't wait to find out.

• Most comebacks are disappointing, but Yuna Kim is not known as "The Queen of Ice" for nothing. As gracious as ever, and solid in her technical elements, the Korean obtained 69.97 points. She finished on first place.

• Gracious, but not yet worthy of the gold medal, Gracie Gold manages to impress with an energetic program, but gets only 58.85 points.

• Elene Gedevanishvili is far from being the skater she was two seasons ago. She failed every single important technical element, which made her lose focus on the presentation. This was a disastrous program, dangerously close to making her lose the qualification for the Olympics. If it does, it will be a loss for Sochi. Her score: 42.40.

• Jenna McCorkell is imagining red oceans and does a terrific job at it. She gets 51.23 points.

• Akiko Suzuki makes tiny mistakes, but otherwise delivers a beautiful program. Her score: 61.17.

• Valentina Marchei knows about flamenco attitude and moves, but still has to work on her skating skills. With two major mistakes, she gets only 50.41 points.

• Playing it safe can get you a long way, especially if your safe game is one of the best in the world, but when tiny mistakes pile up, it makes you wish you had taken more risks. Adelina Sotnikova only gets 59.62 points.

• Viktoria Helgesson got a new Season's Best today at the end of a flawless program. Her score:  58.36.

• Elizaveta Tuktamisheva can say "Adios" to a medal at this championship. The Russian falls during a spin and obtains only 54.72 points.

• Zijun Li is a skater you don't want to lose sight of during the next few seasons. The Chinese shows a lot of potential despite her fall on the combination. She gets 56.31 points.

• Costume, music, choreography, elements...Kanako Murakami mastered them all today and obtained 66.64 points. She finished the SP on third place.

• Confident and executing solid elements, Ashley Wagner manages to score points for interpretation as well. Her score: 63.98.

• Mae Berenice Maite has every reason to feel good today after an excellent program. Her score: 56.90.

• Despite the mistake on the Triple Loop, Mao Asada's program was exactly as one would expect from a champion of her renown - highly entertaining and difficult. Her score: 62.10.

• She seemed to be on top of her game at the start, but Carolina Kostner couldn't land all the jumps. Still one of the best at presentation, which saved her today. She got 66.86 points and finished second.

• Alena Leonova started the competition with nothing to lose, but the Russian rarely shines in such moments. Better at presentation then execution, she gets a disappointing score of 56.30 points.

The end of the ladies' SP might come as a surprise to very few. Carolina Kostner is indeed a consistent skater and delivers beautiful programs, but Yuna Kim was, is and always will be "The Queen of Ice." Today she proved she's still worthy of the title despite staying off the ice for an entire year.

To see the full results, go to: http://www.isuresults.com/results/wc2013/