Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics: Anna Shcherbakova claims figure skating gold, Kamila Valieva finishes 4th

Shcherbakova turned in a sterling performance in the women's free skate on Thursday inside the Capital Indoor Stadium, skating to a personal best score of 175.75 to total 255.95, leaping to first place and capturing the gold medal. 

The 17-year-old had sat in second place after the short program but wins the Olympic title after completing two massive quadruple jumps in her free skate, including one in combination.

Training mate Alexandra Trusova won silver with 251.73 total, while Sakamoto Kaori of Japan claimed the bronze medal, scoring 233.13. 

Short program leader Kamila Valieva stumbled in her free skate, finishing in fourth place overall.

Valieva struggled to stay upright on a quad Salchow and triple Axel to open her program, then fell on the back end of a quad toe-triple Salchow combination. 

She was fifth in the free skate, totalling 224.09 - 10 points shy of the podium. The results are provisional. It marks the first time since Vancouver 2010 that the reigning world champion went on to win the women's Olympic title when Yuna Kim did it.