MOSCOW, November 9 (R-Sport) - American figure skating prodigy Gracie Gold took the lead after the short program in the Cup of Russia women's singles in Moscow on Friday.
Gold, 17, received 62.16 points for her performance winning, leaving her 0.6 points ahead of European Championships runner-up Kiira Korpi of Finland and two points ahead of fellow American Agnes Zawadzki.
World championships runner-up Alena Leonova was fourth with 58.85 points, and said applauding spectators had distracted her.
“I heard that the spectators started to applaud aggressively when I finished the main elements,” Leonova said.
“It distracted me a little. I tried not to think about it, but I couldn’t.”
Adelina Sotnikova, who finished third at the season-opening Skate America, could only manage fifth after making a mistake on a triple flip jump.
“To be honest, I can’t understand why I didn’t make a flip,” the 16-year-old said.
“I was very confident today, I was sure that I would do everything. And here is this flip. It is just killing me that I didn’t make it.”
The women's singles free skate takes place Saturday.
The Cup of Russia is the fourth stage of the 2012-13 Grand Prix calendar.
