Chinanews.com, Beijing, December 12 (Reporter Xing Rui) Recently, the mascot of the Beijing Winter Olympics "Bingdundun" has a new skin. At the award ceremony of the 10 Figure Skating Grand Prix Finals on the evening of the 9th, each winner received a special edition of the Year of the Dragon of "Bingdundun" - "Longdundun". Wearing a red robe, draped in cloud shoulders, tied with a red ribbon around the waist, and pedaling cloud toe shoes, the "Dundun" with a new skin is cute, cute and cute, which also added a different scenery to the exciting game that night.
Men's singles award ceremony. Photo by Chinanews reporter Xing Rui
On the same day, after many days of competition, the senior and youth competitions all came to an end. It is worth mentioning that this is the first time in 13 years that the Grand Prix of Figure Skating Grand Prix Finals has returned to Beijing. Unfortunately, after the previous 6 sub-competitions, none of the Chinese players got the tickets to the finals. In contrast, the Japanese players emerged as the winners of the tournament.
In the women's singles, Japan's Kaori Sakamoto won the gold medal with a total score of 225.70. Despite a small mistake in the free skate, she performed the second half of the race with a perfect performance of the triple triple inside and triple triple and Axel double jumps to win the first final gold medal of her career by a huge margin.
Women's Singles post-match press conference. Photo by Chinanews reporter Xing Rui
Belgium's Hendricks finished second and another Japanese youngster, Yoshida, won a bronze medal. The 18-year-old won the women's singles title at last month's Grand Prix in China, finishing fourth after the finals in the short program. However, with a strong performance in the free skate, she finally stood on the podium with a score of 4.203.
In the men's singles field, the performance of Japanese players is also good. Uno Shoma and Kagiyama Yuma played well, winning a silver and bronze medal respectively. Marinin of the United States scored 6.314 with six quadruple jumps. While being crowned men's singles champion, he also set a new personal best this season.
In the ice dance event, European and American teams still maintain their dominance. The American pair of Jock/Bates, Italy's Geniard/Fabre and Canada's Giles/Poirier won gold, silver and bronze medals in the senior ice dance. In the senior pairs competition that ended on the evening of the 8th, the German combination Kurosawa/Woroden won the championship with a score of 206.43 points, and the Italian combination Conte/March and the Canadian combination Strato Dudij/Deschamps won the second and third places respectively.
In addition to missing out on the podium in the ice dance and pairs events, the Japanese team won a total of four medals in the senior category. In the junior category, the Japanese also won three medals, which also shows the overall depth of Japan's talent in figure skating.
Photo courtesy of the Organizing Committee.
Among them, Ma Shimada and Kana Uezono won the women's singles championship and third place in the youth group respectively, and Rishi Nakata successfully completed the difficult movements of the triple Axel and the quadruple jump of the back outside ice in the free skate, and won the men's singles championship in the youth group with a total score of 227.77 points.
Entering the Milan Winter Olympics cycle, the results of the Chinese figure skating team are not satisfactory. With Sui Wenjing/Han Cong fading out of the competition, the Chinese team lost their advantage in the pairs event. Although Peng Cheng and Wang Lei, who have regrouped as a team, are experienced, they still need more time to run in.
The current state of singles skating is equally worrying. Youngster An Xiangyi, who has been given high hopes, has just been promoted to the senior competition this season, but she is not at her best at the moment. Jin Boyang participated in two sub-races of the Grand Prix this season, finishing eighth and seventh in the French and China Cup respectively. In the just-concluded Golden Spin Cup, he won the first gold medal in Chinese figure skating in the international arena this season.
The once impressive results have become a thing of the past, and the Chinese figure skating team, which has not yet broken through the bottleneck, needs to be transformed urgently, which requires young players to calm down and polish their skills, but also needs more understanding, support and encouragement from the outside world. (ENDS)