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Korean figure skater Kim Yu-na has won the International Skating Union (ISU) Grand Prix of Figure Skating for a second straight year.
In the final round of the series in Turin, Italy the 17-year-old student snatched the gold medal with a total of 196.83 points -- 132.21 points in Sunday's free skating program and 64.62 points in the short program on Saturday.
Kim got off to a bad start by falling on her backside in her second jump early in her performance, but she quickly pulled herself together for an otherwise perfect performance.
"I got nervous after making a mistake during a triple loop," she said in an official interview after the event, referring to a jump that takes off from a back outside edge with a triple mid-air turn. "But I tried to keep my mind focused on the rest of the performance."
Mao Asada, Kim's same-age Japanese rival, won the silver with a total of 191.59 points. Although Asada finished last in the short program, she scored 132.55 points in the free skating program.
The Grand Prix final pits the six skaters with the best performance in the previous six rounds of the series. Kim is only the third skater to win the title twice in a row, after Irina Slutskaya of Russia and Tara Lipinski of the U.S.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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