Namwon Korea Open

Ye Hao Qin, master in Korea

The last day of Namwon Korea open's freestyle contest was dedicated to battle.

In the men's competition, the level was very high since 8 skaters of the word's top 10 were spread in the different groups. Ye Hao Qin (Chn), the current world champion, and "battle master", who is "only" on the world's 14th place, since he hardly can travel out of China, was eager to show that his ranking is not reflecting his real level. And he did it right, by winning the final beating on his way world's number 1, 3, 4 and 5 !  
In the final where he met World N.1 Romain Lebois (Fra), he was not so confident than usually :
"I am very excited and happy about this victory. I realized that many skaters are much better than during last competitions and I have more pressure. I decided to start 4th so I could see the others' tricks, and then do my runs accordingly. I wanted to do a perfect last trick. I was nervous at the first runs, so I did some mistakes. I think that Romain Lebois' tricks were very hard and stable so I began to think about how to make harder tricks to win this competition."

Romain Lebois (Fra, World N.#1) was very close from Ye Hao Qin, and is stronger and stronger ; his amazing last trick showed how he improved since last season, but he still did some small mistakes in the first runs that he will need to correct if he wants to beat YHQ in the next big competitions.
"My goal was to beat Ye Hao Qin, I tried not to show all my tricks before the final, to do my best for the final. I did very good tricks, but I was disappointed about my Christie Wheeling, but I am satisfied about my last trick which went very well. When I saw YHQ's last trick, it gave me motivation to practice more the hardest tricks, and to take my revenge next week at Battle Masters. This final in Namwon was really, one of my best finals."

Alexandre Claris (Fra) did a good competition, and for him this 3rd place is a very good result and was quite unexpected, but the Europe Champion knows how to find ressources to improve his level at the right moment.
"My goal was simple, I wanted a medal, and against Ye Hao Qin and Romain Lebois, I think that only thé third place was reachable for me. I wanted to land fat tricks to take this medal, but I missed some tricks at the beginning, and I saw that Zhu Tian Le was doing good and clean after my runs, so for my second run, i passed many different wheeling combos, and I think I came back on ZTL, then I did a good 3rd run where he passed only few tricks, and repeated some of them. On the total, I still thought I would be 4th, that's why I was disappointed at the end of the final ; but when the MC announced 4th place for ZTL, and then 3rd place for me, I was really happy. I am not really satisfied with my skating of today, but I am happy to be 3rd because YHQ and R.Lebois were really above the others today, I got my first medal in Battle in Asia, and I hope it will continue ! "

After her victory in Classic freestyle yesterday, Klaudia Hartmanis got a second gold medal in Battle, she showed that she is still improving her level, and that her tricks are more and more stable. The good balance in her runs between freestyle and hard tricks, and her good combos, is a big advantage against the other skaters.

"I took the 1st place and i'm very happy about it, but i also know that there are a lot of things which i have to improve. My finals runs weren't perfect.... i did more mistakes than in the qualifications. I was trying to focus and to fight against myself, so i kept smiling and did my best ;)"

Zoé Granjon did a great performance by taking the 2nd place of the competition. The current world N.6 placed good tricks which she was not able to do last season, like the Back ToFu (Toe Footgun) on the whole 120's line, and new wheeling combos ; while Maryna Boiko, was not so clean and stable during her runs.
Z.G : "My first goal on this competition,was to have fun, and to give the best of myself. I think that I reached this goal, since I went to the final and took the 2nd place ! I had a hard semi final against Klaudia, A.Prucnal and Wang Ding Yu Xin, but I pushed myself doing good tricks combos, like toe footgun on the whole 80, back toe footgun on 11 cones, shift on 20 cones, and so on… I wasn't very stressed during this semi final, I had fun and showed high level tricks, that's why I could qualify for the final ! I was so happy to qualify, and this motivated me to do even better at the final ! I decided to do the same runs, in the first run, a heel wheeling combo, with a toe shift, I did it quite well, and was clean. On my second run, I did a toe footgun on the whole 80 and 14 sevens combining heel and toe, which was good for me, then on my third run, I started with cobra combo to toe fishleg on the whole line. For my last trick, I could manage to finish a back Toe footgun on the whole 120 !! At the end I was really happy about what I just did, because my tricks were balanced, and because I had fun doing them ! I had a good fun and motivation to skate with the other girls, i didn't expect to be at the second place, and I couldn't believe it when the MC announced my result ! I was so happy, it is wonderful to be on the podium in Asia ! Now I know what I have to work on for PSWC in Paris, and I want to show very high level !"

Maryna Boiko : "I am not very satisfied about this result, because I was ready for this event. For external reasons, I was very nervous from this morning, and because of that I missed many tricks. I was ready with my condition, and my tricks' preparation but unfortunately I was too nervous to achieve them good. The other girls are improving very fast, and they all do new tricks and new combos in each competition; now at the next competitions, you never know what the girls will do !"

The full results are available here.