[ad_1]
On Friday 17-year-old Olga Mikutina achieved Austria’s best figure skating World Cup result in 24 years, finishing eighth. Vorarlbergerin regained three places in Stockholm from their position after the short program and tied Julia Lautowa’s 1997 placement. With the seventh best freestyle on the field, Mikutina Austria secured a berth for the Winter Olympics in Beijing in 2022 and a second starting place for the 2022 World Cup.
After Mikutina surpassed her personal best of the 2020 European Championship by almost 14 points in the short program, she pulverized her best freestyle so far with 131.59 points for no less than exactly 35 points. As in the short program, Coach Elena Romanowa’s protégé arrived safely and without a fall, with the music of Primavera and Experience, each by Italian composer Ludovico Einaudi, only a double thought from Axel turned out to be simple.
“I can hardly believe it and I am very happy for this success,” Mikutina said. “After finishing eleventh in the short program on Wednesday, of course I was motivated to give it my all again today. I never would have dreamed that freestyle would be such a precise landing and that I could still make up some places.” Mikutina moved from the Ukrainian industrial city of Kharkiv to Feldkirch five years ago.
The title fights in Sweden ended with great success for the Austrian Association (ÖEKV), as the running pair Miriam Ziegler / Severin Kiefer had also convinced with eleventh place. The 27-year-old from Burgenland and the 30-year-old from Salzburg also bought a ticket to the Winter Games in China. Only Maurizio Zandron in the men failed to achieve 29th place. As for the Olympics, there is still the possibility to buy one of the remaining tickets in Oberstdorf in September.
