The first silver of Samarin
After the French Grand Prix stage, Sema Uno almost lost the chance to take part in the final - it is likely that for the first time in five years these competitions will be held without his participation. Similar fears appeared after a short rental, after which the athlete took fourth place. This result alone was not a sentence, but the quality of the Olympic silver medalist was extremely low.
However, his free program was still difficult and included four quadruple jumps, which, if performed perfectly, could provide Uno with a place on the podium. However, the athlete did not demonstrate this: on three jumps he fell and made two serious mistakes on two more jumps. The Japanese skater was in eighth place with a very low final score of 215.84 points.
But Alexander Samarin’s chances to make it to the Grand Prix finals for the first time are now very high. After the first day, he went second in Grenoble and had only to avoid disruptions in order to win silver. He began the free program with another brilliant performance of the quadruple Lutz cascade - a triple sheepskin coat. But further on the Russian skater became anxious - he fell on a quadruple flip and a triple lutz, with rough edges he was performing jumps in the second half. As a result, Samarin scored 265.10 points - in his career this is the second result at international starts, but by the standards of the Grand Prix he is not so high.
The Russian could not feel absolutely confident on the second line. After him, the Frenchman Kevin Aymoz appeared on the ice, who, with an ideal performance, could be ahead. On the first four jumps, the skater was still mistaken, but then he heroically continued to fight for every point. As a result, in a free program, he managed to get around Samarin to the delight of his native audience. But the Russian was still the second and for the first time won silver at the Grand Prix stage thanks to the backlog obtained in the short program.
The first place was not disputed by anyone except Nathan Chen. The realization that gold was already in your pocket, and with it the ticket to the Grand Prix finals, relaxed the American a little. His skating was not ideal, although he tried to please the audience with a new cascade - a quadruple sheepskin coat with a triple flip through the oiler, which was previously performed only by Yuzuru Hanyu. Because of his inaccuracies, Chen did not reach his usual score of three hundred points - the judges gave him 297.16.
Debutant victory in pairs
Not only in women's single skating, gold for Russia will be won by debutants of adult competitions. The same thing happens in couples competitions. The competition in Grenoble was the first stage of the Grand Prix for the reigning world champions among juniors Anastasia Mishina and Alexander Gallyamov, and they immediately won gold medals.
The main event of their free program to the music from “The Master and Margarita” was to become a complex cascade with two triple salchow and an oiler. Nevertheless, the pair from St. Petersburg did not succeed in the crown element - the judges counted only a double jump, and even that one noticeably slipped in value. But the rest, Mishin and Gallyamov did not allow themselves to be mistaken in a program that was well known since last year. In total, they scored an impressive 207.58 points, and this result was not even their personal record - the couple skated this season even better, but not at the stages of the Grand Prix.
Daria Pavlyuchenko and Denis Khodykin fell in second place. They were the favorites of the competition, especially after an impeccable short program. But in an arbitrary Pavlyuchenko fell on a triple flip and could not stay on her feet after throwing a triple rittberger. The excellent twist and cascade of their three sheepskin coats brought the pair a personal record in the amount of 206.56 points, but they were not allowed to win. But now they will again be full participants in the Grand Prix finals - two silver medals are enough to pass the selection.
Papadakis and Sizeron without records
Russian dancers Tiffany Zagorski and Jonathan Gureyro took fifth place in France after the rhythm dance and remained there according to the results of a free rental. After an unsuccessful last season, the couple broke a personal record in Grenoble, gaining a total of 184.44 points. Only if a year ago Zagorski and Gureyro performed in the Grand Prix finals, then this time in December they will have time to heal the partner’s knee and better prepare for the Russian championship.
The free dance did not affect the constellations of the other duets who performed in the strongest workout. The Italians Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri became the bronze medalists, the Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates took the second place. The French Gabriela Papadakis and Guillaume Sizeron won, showing how they can dance to recitative instead of music. It turned out as bewitching as usual, but the judges still decided not to award the couple for such a large-scale experiment of an assessment that would update world records.