The third stop of the Grand Prix of Figure Skating is finished.
In the Ice Dance portion, Russians Alexandra Stepanova & Ivan Bukin claimed the gold. Italians Charlene Guignard & Marco Fabbri won the silver. In a surprise moment, Americans Lorraine McNamara & Quinn Carpenter won the bronze. It is their first year competing on the senior circuit, so to win a medal on your debut season is a great thing.
In the Pairs competition, it was almost the same podium as the Ice Dance finish. Russians Natalia Zabiiako & Alexander Enbert won the gold, and Italians Nicole Della Monica & Matteo Guarise took the silver. A second Russian pair, Daria Pavliuchenko & Denis Khodykin took the bronze. US pair Deanna Stellato-Dudek & Nathan Bartholomay managed to move up from last (8th) into 6th, but it was not a clean performance, and there was some glaring going on between the two, leading some to speculate that perhaps this pair may be thinking of splitting.
For the Men's competition, we had some drama. The gold medal winner was Japan's Yuzuru Hanyu. He is the current Olympic champion, but did not have a clean short program. However, he was still placed first. His long program was also considered "sloppy" for him (he had no falls, but quite a few titled air positions and step-outs from jumps), but he still took the gold. The surprise performance was from Michal Brezina of the Czech Republic. Michal is 28 and has been competing on the senior circuit for a while now. The last time he qualified for the Grand Prix final was back in 2011. From 2011 - 2018, his scores didn't qualify him to enter the Grand Prix Final. This year, he won a silver medal at Skate America, and now a silver at Skate Finland. He's now qualified for the Grand Prix final this year. Junhwan Cha of Korea took the bronze. American Alexei Krasnazhon was able to move up from 8th to 7th.
Finally, we have the ladies, and they had the same bit of drama the men did. One of the competitors was Alina Zagitova of Russia. She is the current Olympic Gold Medalist, and in her short program, she popped one of her jumps, turning her triple lutz- triple loop combo into a triple lutz-single loop. She was still placed first. Her long program contained no errors, but she was visibly bothered by the way she skated it, she felt she could've done better. Stanislava Konstantinova (also of Russia) finished with the silver medal, giving Russia a double podium finish. The most memorable skate when to the bronze medalist, Kaori Sakamoto. Usually a very reliable skater, nerves got the better of her in the short program, and she fell twice, ending up in 7th place. She pulled it together for the long program, and her scores would've placed her in second, but because she was so far down after the short program, she finished in third. American Angela Wang also was a victim of nerves. She finished 9th after the short program, and ended up in last (11th) after the long.
The next stop (next weekend) is NHK Trophy (Japan). Attendees are:
Ice Dance
Carolane SOUCISSE / Shane FIRUS CAN
Shiyue WANG / Xinyu LIU CHN
Gabriella PAPADAKIS / Guillaume CIZERON FRA
Lilah FEAR / Lewis GIBSON GBR
Misato KOMATSUBARA / Tim KOLETO JPN
Anastasia SKOPTCOVA / Kirill ALESHIN RUS
Tiffani ZAGORSKI / Jonathan GUERREIRO RUS
Alexandra NAZAROVA / Maxim NIKITIN UKR
Kaitlin HAWAYEK / Jean-Luc BAKER USA
Rachel PARSONS / Michael PARSONS USA
Pairs
Kirsten MOORE-TOWERS / Michael MARINARO CAN
Cheng PENG / Yang JIN CHN
Laura BARQUERO / Aritz MAESTU ESP
Miu SUZAKI / Ryuichi KIHARA JPN
Natalia ZABIIAKO / Alexander ENBERT RUS
Tarah KAYNE / Danny O'SHEA USA
Audrey LU / Misha MITROFANOV USA
Alexa SCIMECA KNIERIM / Chris KNIERIM USA
Men
Kevin REYNOLDS CAN
Matteo RIZZO ITA
Hiroaki SATO JPN
Shoma UNO JPN
Sota YAMAMOTO JPN
Deniss VASILJEVS LAT
June Hyoung LEE KOR
Dmitri ALIEV RUS
Sergei VORONOV RUS
Yaroslav PANIOT UKR
Alexander JOHNSON USA
Vincent ZHOU USA
Women
Kailani CRAINE AUS
Mae Berenice MEITE FRA
Rika KIHIRA JPN
Mai MIHARA JPN
Satoko MIYAHARA JPN
Eunsoo LIM KOR
Maria SOTSKOVA RUS
Elizaveta TUKTAMYSHEVA RUS
Mariah BELL USA
Courtney HICKS USA
Angela WANG USA
