Men
The second day of the French stage of the Grand Prix began again with the men's competition. Those fans who gathered in the arena in Grenoble as early as possible were most worried about whether Nathan Chen would be able to rehabilitate himself for the unfortunate short hire. The answer was positive - with its free program, an American is able to succeed, even if the opponents have a solid handicap.
And this is despite the fact that Chen never showed all his possibilities in France, and the content of the program was subjected to a thorough revision. Instead of a quadruple lutz, the American decided to show a flip, for which the judges automatically lower the marks due to a fuzzy rib on the touchdown. The world champion at the same time transferred one quadruple sheepskin coat to the beginning of hire, reducing the value of one of his cascades. With some blots, Chen received 184.64 points from the judges for his free program — only Yuzuru Hania and Sema Uno are capable of such numbers. Neither one nor the other played in France, so Chen won and joined the Japanese in the list of participants in the Grand Prix finals.
In the same company could be a Russian athlete Alexander Samarin. He needed to keep the second place after the short program, that is, bypassing American Jason Brown. But the 20-year-old Muscovite failed to show his two most difficult leaps - the quadruple Lutz and the triple axel. Brown, on the other hand, did not try to frighten his rivals by the complexity of his programs and he skated off to his own strength, receiving good gains for the elements and even more generous components. The American figure skater beat Samarin in the free program by three points and won the silver medal, while the Russian was left with bronze. Now, if Hania is still withdrawn due to injury and does not go to Vancouver, Canadian Keegan Messing will take his place, not Samarin.
It is impossible not to note the performance of another Russian figure skater in France. Dmitry Aliev began the season rather uncertainly, and the ninth place after the short program in France could be considered the worst event that happened to him after the Olympics. Still, the skater from Ukhta was able to show that it was too early to put a cross on him. Aliyev started his free-roll perfectly, performing in the first half of the quadruple toe loop. Then he had some minor problems, the judges even rationalized the path of steps and two cascades, but the Russian still scored the best grade for the rental after Chen - 162.67 points. In the final protocol, Aliyev rose to fourth place.
Dancing on Ice
In the dance tournament no serious upheavals happened - the entire first four formed after rhythm dance remained with their positions. The French Gabriela Papadakis and Guillaume Sizeron again fascinated both the fans and the judges with their impeccable performance to the music of Rachel Yamagata. Suffice it to say that for three components out of five the silver medalists of the last Olympiad received marks more than 9.90, while the maximum possible level is 10 points.
While all the dancers this season dream about scoring more than 200 points for their rentals, Papadakis and Sizeron earned 216.78 points. It is a pity that this duet will not perform in the Grand Prix finals - it is difficult to think of more worthy participants of these competitions.
But then three Russian couples will perform in Vancouver. For the first time, Russia will have such a large representation at the final stage in ice dancing. Such a situation arose due to the fact that Victoria Sinitsyna and Nikita Katsalapov won silver medals for the second time in a season. Having scored a little more than the same 200 points, the Russians left with the bronze of Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, who could get around in the Grand Prix rating of Tiffany Zagorski and Jonathan Gurreiro.
Women
The short program for women did not bring any clarity - the three leaders in the composition of Mai Mihara, Rika Kihira and Evgenia Medvedeva showed almost the same result. Acting medals and trips to the Grand Prix finals they had to actually re-start. At the same time, the Russian figure skater again let her rivals go ahead - she performed her free program last.
By the time the Japanese went out on the ice, Brady Tennell from the USA took the lead. The American woman didn’t spin the second jump in the lutz-rittberger cascade and nearly ended the triple-flip jump series, but on the whole she managed to cope with her complex program, which resulted in a score of 197.78 points. He became a guide for the rest of the girls.
The leader after the short program Mai Mihara did not hurry to surrender to the technically better equipped rivals. To do everything from and to was the only task. The 19-year-old Japanese woman did not fight for the Grand Prix finals, only for the status of the first substitute participant. But the figure skater, apparently, really wanted to be at least in this position. In her performance to the music of Ennio Morricone from the film “Mission”, Mihara allowed only one blot when she didn’t twist the sheepskin coat in the cascade. The other two series of lutz jumps were perfect. The Japanese athlete scored 202.81 points.
Rika Kihira decided to play it safe after the triple axel was torn off in the short program and simplified the arbitrary one by throwing out such a complicated jump from the cascade. It didn’t save the 16-year-old Japanese girl to fulfill this element purely and failed. But, nevertheless, Kihir did not suffer any other significant losses, and the judges were very attracted by the decoration of the rental - the figure skater received rather high points for the components for her age. She passed Miharu by three points and set the task for Medvedeva - to beat her season record to win.
Already at the very beginning of the rental to the musician of the cellist Yo-Yo Ma, it became clear that the two-time world champion could not cope with this. She prepared a new cascade of double axel - triple rittberger, but fell on the first jump, and very unsuccessfully, continuing the rotation by inertia. From the next jumps, the Russians instantly lost their lightness, their face became gloomy, and their knees began to bend on the rotations.
Having coped with the axel from the second attempt, Medvedeva proceeded to the cascade with a flip and a sheepskin coat - the very one that failed in the short program. But again twice the silver medalist of the Olympics continued to spin after landing, barely avoiding a fall. For this cascade, the figure skater received about the same points as for the steps. Thanking the Russian fans who had reached France, Medvedev, with a head and shoulders, hurried to coach Brian Orcer, who promised that the athlete would perform better. This did not happen - she scored 192.81 points and took the final fourth place. The Grand Prix Final will be held without a double winner of this tournament.
However, three Russian girls will still compete in the competition - Sofia Samodurova joined Alina Zagitova and Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, whom Mihara could not reach. Three Japanese women - Rika Kihira, Satoko Miyahara and Kaori Sakamoto will confront the Russian women.
Sports couples
The pairs tournament, which closed the stage of the Grand Prix in France, concealed intrigue - whether the main favorites Vanessa James and Morgan Sipre will be able to rise from the third place after the short program to the first, which should belong to them by right. As well as Chen, the French didn’t try too hard - ripped off Salchow and cut levels on a number of supports didn’t match their usual level. Still, they got their points - the judges awarded James and Sipre with a final score of 205.77 points.
Those who overtook the owners of the ice, you had to be perfect in order to maintain a leading position. The young Russian pair of Alexander Boykov - Dmitry Kozlovsky failed. The recent juniors did not have a parallel cascade, in which the fall of the partner was not the biggest problem, and the release of the rittberger. For some items, the Russians received very low premiums. The second time they failed to perform in full force, and Boikov and Kozlovsky took the final third place, which they still have to be satisfied with - few in 16 and 18 years old manage to become Grand Prix winners.