Referee dancing
The rhythm dance made ice dancing the most intriguing and open competition in the Grand Prix finals. The main favorites Gabriela Papadakis and Guillaume Sizeron won less than three points in four other pairs, which is extremely rare. Of course, it was difficult to imagine that the French would give the victory to someone else, but other duets at least got at least a small chance.
Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin performed an impeccable free dance, in which they switched from classical music to the famous hit of Justin Timberlake. Only the referees didn’t find their tracks and twizzles interesting, and their support original. Virtually not a single element of the Russians received the fourth level of difficulty, which simply could not be true by definition, because otherwise such a pair would not have been worth playing in the Grand Prix finals. Stepanova and Bukin lost in the free dance to the Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, but bypassed them at the expense of the reserve after the rhythm dance.
The performance of Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov began flawlessly. Their twizzes got level four. But then the severity of the judges began to increase exponentially, which led to a disaster. At the final choreographic glide, the couple was even punished with a penalty point for allegedly falling. Sinitsina and Katsalapov unexpectedly fell to last place, which did not seem deserved at all.
By the exit of the second group of participants, the judges seemed to be replaced. The Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates could no longer complain about any nit-picking, although in this pair the emphasis was in everything shifted to the partner: from supports to clothes. Nevertheless, the dancers from the USA beat Stepanov and Bukin by as much as six points, as if the difference in class was insurmountable. However, soon everything fell into place - even Papadakis and Sizeron did not get the points they deserved that evening. Although they won first place, they received less than 220 points, which has not happened to them for a long time.
Stepanova and Bukin had the last chance for a medal if something happened to another American duo Madison Hubbell - Zachary Donoghue. Last year's winners skated as accurately as possible, without unnecessary emotions and even in something mechanically, but it was definitely impossible to find fault with their technique. Such a performance did not allow them to rise to second place, but they did not miss bronze either. Two duets from the USA first climbed the podium in the Grand Prix finals, and Papadakis and Sizeron won this tournament for the second time in their careers.
No longer the best in Europe
The men's free program could be divided into two unequal parts - at first the quartet of participants determined the winner of the bronze medal among themselves, and then a duel should be held for Yuzuru Hanyu and Nathan Chen for gold. In the first mini-tournament, the fight was continued by Alexander Samarin and Dmitry Aliyev. In the short program, they both lost a lot of points to Kevin Aymoz, but retained the opportunity to recoup.
Aliyev’s attempt to get into the top three winners ended in failure. The fourth lutz at the beginning of the program was the only pleasant moment in his program. Then half of the jumps ended in falls or undercuts; the skater did not even have the strength to rotate. Last year Aliyev returned to the ice, from whom everything fell out of his hands and there was no charge for wrestling. Recklessly skipping the program, the Russian rolled back from fourth to last, skipping forward Jin Boyan.
Samarin did his best to win back the 15-point gap from Aymoz. He could not complete the entire plan for quadruple jumps - there was a step-out on the flip, on the sheepskin coat - only two turns. But the vice-champion did not give up the fight, he continued to perform element after element and hope for the best. A strict adherence to the plan slightly failed Samarin - he forgot that it was impossible to perform a double sheepskin coat for the third time, and did not replace him with at least some other jump that would bring points. As a result, the Russian skated almost according to his own season record in the free program.
The fate of the bronze medal was entirely in the hands of Aymoz. He rarely manages to make two solid hire in a row, but the Grand Prix finals just became such a tournament. One fall and slight undercuts in the program with two quadruple sheepskin coats - this was quite enough, if you add to them still genuine passion and emotions, which Aymoz always has in abundance. After the program, he habitually fell into tears, since he, far from the most technically gifted skater, managed to get around all his rivals at that time and win a medal. Equally important, now it is the Frenchman who will be the main favorite of the January European Championship, and not the Russian skaters.
That's one happy Kevin Aymoz !! 😄 He takes home the bronze medal from the Grand Prix Final!
Full results: https://t.co/TcTCWScDvv#GPFigure#FigureSkatingpic.twitter.com/lh1tjMXQYx
Meanwhile, Han and Chen began to compete in their own league. The Japanese, who celebrated his 25th birthday that day, was as brilliant as ever and performed the quadruple Lutz for the second time in his career. On this he should have stopped and already rolled the program quietly, but Hanyu decided to anger the gods and end the cascade of two triple axels. The idea failed, one “butterfly” immediately deprived him of a huge portion of points. The Olympic champion missed nearly nine points to three hundred in the sum of two programs.
Chen, on the other hand, was on strike and simply completed everything that he showed more than once in this season and in the previous ones, when he won two Grand Prix finals in the absence of Hania. Five quadruple jumps, one triple axel, the highest levels of difficulty on spins - the American decorated his third victory in a row with two new world records. In arbitrary, he scored 224.92 points - more than Aliyev for two rentals - and 335.30 points in total. Hanyu lost nearly 44 points to Chen, and for the Japanese, such a lag from the first place was the biggest in the last ten years of his career.
🙌 Flawless! Nathan Chen nails every single element to take home the gold medal from the Grand Prix Final! 🥇
Results: https://t.co/TcTCWScDvv#GPFigure#FigureSkatingpic.twitter.com/B6EuA15U6B
Juniors
It was not possible to perform purely Russian figure skaters in junior competitions. After a short program, Andrey Mozalev and Daniil Samsonov occupied the first two places, but both eventually lost to the Japanese Sun Sato, who had a quadruple lutz, two quadruple sheepskin coats, and two triple axels in a free rental. With a score of 255.11 points for the two days Sato could now compete with adult athletes and replace Shoma Uno in the Japanese team.
🥇 Shun Sato takes first in the Junior Men at the Junior Grand Prix Final in Torino!
Full results: https://t.co/XuzZidoPUk#JGPFigure#FigureSkatingpic.twitter.com/7i5lFhDOhs
The Russians did not succeed in purely skating in arbitrary. Mozalev coped with quadruple sheepskin coats, but could not avoid falling on the axel and unsuccessfully left one of the cascades. The 16-year-old skater became a silver medalist. Samsonov temporarily lost to him the title of the strongest Russian junior. Although he also started promisingly and performed the quadruple lutz only with a small blot, then his triple axel was left without a cascade. The student Eteri Tutberidze did not have time to attach the failed jump. But for him, the 14-year-old beginner skater, the bronze of the Junior Grand Prix final was still an excellent result.
In pair skating, the first five places were left to Russian participants. Diana Mukhametzyanova and Ilya Mironov tried to overthrow Apollinaria Panfilova and Dmitry Rylov. Their hopping content was simply unbelievable - a cascade of triple lutz and two sheepskin coats, as well as a solo flip. Panfilova and Rylov were not so impressed, and besides, they dropped a rittberger with a fall, but remained in first place. Mukhametzyanova and Mironov lost less than a point in a gold dispute. Ksenia Akhantieva and Valery Kolesov became bronze medalists.
🥇 Panfilova / Rylov take first in the Junior Pairs at the Junior Grand Prix Final in Torino!
Full results: https://t.co/2YvPyTAedW#JGPFigure#FigureSkatingpic.twitter.com/F4scVvdLDg
In ice dancing, the Russian juniors submitted only to bronze, which was won by Elizaveta Shanaeva and David Narizhny. And there could have been gold - the winners of the competitions Maria Kazakova and George Revia used to ride for Russia, but now they represent Georgia and brought her the first prize of the highest standard in the official championships of the International Union of Skaters. The Georgian duo won only 16 hundredths of a point from the Americans Evonly Nguyen and Vadim Kolesnik.