Kim botches two jumps in free skate; leaders yet to take ice

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Kim Yuna’s chances of retaining her world title apparently disappeared when she botched two of her final three jumps in Saturday’s free skate at Turin, Italy. Her score, 130.49, was nearly 20 points below the record total (150.06) the South Korean amassed in her Olympic victory last month. Kim, 19, fell on a triple salchow and popped a double axel. She also lacked spark throughout the four-minute program. As she came off the ice, her coach, Brian Orser, said, “You got through it. Don’t worry about it.” There were nine skaters remaining when Kim finished, including short program winner Mirai Nagasu of the United States and 2008 world champion Mao Asada of Japan. Kim’s free skate score still was more than respectable. She had only 111.70 at Skate America last fall, and only three other women (Asada, Joannie Rochette and Sasha Cohen) ever had scored higher than 130.49 going into Saturday’s action. But Kim had finished just seventh in the short program Friday with the third lowest score of her senior career, 10 points behind Nagasu and 8 behind Asada. Kim botched a jump, a spin and a spiral in the short program. -- Philip Hersh