Juniors chasing Lew
The first day of the final of the Grand Prix in figure skating began with a junior competition. In the competitions of men, girls and sports couples, the representation of Russia was very significant - out of 18 participants, only six represented other countries. Nevertheless, such a numerical advantage did not allow taking leadership in all disciplines.
The main event of the women's competition was the performance of US prodigy Alice Lew. This season, she became the first and so far the only skater who performed a triple axel and quadruple jumps in the same program. In Turin, the 14-year-old athlete established a new achievement - she was the first to perform a cascade of triple axel and triple sheepskin coat not in the free program, but in the short one. Not a single athlete had such complex content, and Lew took the lead with a score of 71.19 points. However, the Russian figure skaters lost a little to the American - Daria Usacheva, Ksenia Sinitsyna, Kamila Valieva and Victoria Vasilyeva inferior to Liu no more than 3.12 points.
Among juniors, the student of Eteri Tutberidze Daniil Samsonov was considered the main favorite, who managed to break all world records for young skaters at the age of 14. But the fall on the triple axel did not allow him to take an intermediate first place. The more experienced skater Andrei Mozalev climbed onto it, having managed to win at an adult level in the Warsaw Cup tournament. The 16-year-old skater scored 82.45 points and outstripped Samsonov by almost five points. The third Russian participant, Pyotr Gumennik, who a year ago became the silver medalist of the Junior Grand Prix finals, also fell from the triple axel and became only the fourth.
In pairs was the most pleasant picture for Russian fans - all five pairs took the first five places. At the head were Apollinaria Panfilova and Dmitry Rylov, promising great potential, able to compete with adult athletes in technology. For the twist and support, they scored as many points as many participants in the adult finals did not dream of. Panfilova and Rylov only smeared the todes, so in the end they were left without another junior world record and stopped at around 68.80 points.
Less score to leaders from China
Russian duets had to open the adult part of the Grand Prix finals. Although two couples won the stages this season, and one already participated in this tournament last year, the organizers placed all of them in the first warm-up due to their youth and lack of points in the world ranking.
Anastasia Mishina and Alexander Gallyamov were the first to go on the ice and performed under the popular song of dancers Je suis malade Lara Fabian. Such a composition demanded that the couple maximize expressiveness and sensual skating, which yesterday's juniors do not yet have. The judges rated their components to a minimum and did not give generously for the equipment, although the Russians did not make any mistakes. The winners of the Canadian stage earned 71.48 points for a short rental, immediately feeling the severity of the referees at such a prestigious tournament.
Daria Pavlyuchenko and Denis Khodykin already knew what it was like to perform in the Grand Prix finals, and in their skating one could feel the experience of last season. The partner and partner tried every second to be as close to each other as possible, even during rotations, to emphasize once again the unity of their pair. And although the components were not the highest either, the judges gave generous ratings for the elements, especially since there was something to reward the Russians for. Pavlyuchenko and Khodykin scored 75.16 points and rose to first place.
The perfect rental was shown by Alexander Boykov and Dmitry Kozlovsky. Recently, they entered an exclusive club of couples who scored more than 80 points in the short program, but that was at the Grand Prix home stage, and in the final the judges continued to be principled - for the final rotation, one referee from the USA even put a negative mark. Without improvements for components and large allowances for equipment, students of Tamara Moskvina scored 76.65 points.
Boykova and Kozlovsky easily maintained leadership almost until the very end of the short program. The Chinese Peng Cheng - Jin Yang and Canadians Kirsten Moore Towers - Michael Marianro fell and were mistaken in such a way that they let all Russians go ahead without gaining 70 points. But the main favorites of the competition, Sui Wenjing and Han Tsong, did not miss the first place. Although the world champions were let down by their signature flip, on which the partner unexpectedly touched the ice with her hand, they eliminated the lag in the technical assessment with the components. A couple from China received 77.50 points. It will now be extremely difficult for Russians to fight for gold, since the free program Sui Wenjing and Han Tsun each time touches the judges for the living.
🥰 Wenjing Sui / Cong Han 🇨🇳 make it look so easy! Death Spiral with a difficult entry, and they hold the lead after the Pairs Short Program!
Full results: https://t.co/iq7OtZG5ex#JGPFigure#FigureSkatingpic.twitter.com/07m3I5D9Pt
Russians without cascades
The short program for men began with a great embarrassment for the organizers. Frenchman Kevin Aymoz was given the music of Dmitry Aliyev, which he immediately began to signal to the judges. After a pause, which the audience filled with applause, Aymoz still heard a familiar tune and gave an incredible performance. Not forgetting the jumping content with a quadruple sheepskin coat, the Frenchman perfectly emphasized every accent in his music and broke a personal record - 96.71 points.
Chinese Jin Boyang miraculously made it to the Grand Prix finals after becoming only sixth in the first stage in the United States. Luck after that turned away from him - in the short program, the bronze medalist of the world championships immediately deprived himself of a chance for a medal. The skater tore off the quadruple lutz and left it without a cascade. Somehow he managed to attach a triple sheepskin coat to a quadruple, but remained without allowances. Jin Boyang immediately lost to Aymoz 16 points.
Russian Dmitry Aliyev immediately showed how to execute the quadruple lutz - he finally managed to make all the necessary turns. But then he did not fight in a cascade for a sheepskin coat and made it only double, and such a jump automatically turned out to be without any assessment, even the basic one. The rest of the program for the rock opera Mozart, Aliyev was flawless, but one mistake left him with only 88.78 points and with a decent gap from Aymoz, who did not expect to be the first by the middle of the short program.
The Frenchman was finally pushed by Nathan Chen, who at once stopped all the talk about the fact that this season he is not as good as in the previous ones. It was noticeable how he added in choreography, especially since the song of Charles Aznavour simply obliged him to please his trainer Rafael Harutyunyan. Although Chen didn’t have an extremely difficult jump set for a short program, the American broke the world record in technology, gaining 110.38 points in total - only 15 hundredths of his loss to the achievement of Yuzur Han, which lasts more than a year.
Wow! Nathan Chen takes the Men's Short Program with a clean skate and fantastic energy! 🔋⚡️
Full results: https://t.co/TcTCWScDvv#GPFigure#FigureSkatingpic.twitter.com/0rDFiy7wtM
Alexander Samarin was just about to execute the most difficult short program, but completely failed in his task. Usually a stable cascade of Lutz - sheepskin coats turned out to be cut in half, the quadruple flip was undercut, and only a double sheepskin coat was attached to it. A solid triple axel in the second half of the program, Samarin only secured himself from the last place and by half a point passed Jin Boyan.
Yuzuru Hanyu, as befits a four-time winner of the Grand Prix finals, closed the first day of the competition. The way he brilliantly performed the quadruple salchow and the triple axel portended a real fight with Chen for first place. However, the Japanese suddenly stumbled on a fourth sheepskin coat and could not make at least some kind of cascade. In components, he barely beat the American skater, but remained far behind in technology. Hanyu scored 97.43 points with three jumps - half a point more than Aymoz with four.