World Junior silver medalist Anna Shcherbakova of Russia continued her spectacular ascent, flying high to win her second Grand Prix gold at the Shiseido Cup of China on Saturday.
Japan’s two-time World medalist Satoko Miyahara skated to the silver medal while 2015 World Champion Elizaveta Tuktamysheva of Russia moved up one spot in the Free Skating to claim the bronze.
Performing to Erik Satie’s 'Gnossienne No. 1' and Igor Stravinski’s 'Firebird', Shcherbakova reeled off a quadruple Lutz as well as a triple Lutz-triple loop combination and three more triples. However, the first quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple toe was under-rotated. The Russian champion collected a level four for two spins and scored 152.53 points. She accumulated 226.04 points overall, won with 15 points to spare and booked her spot in the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final.
“The free program was good, but not perfect, there were some mistakes,” the 15-year-old commented.
“I am very happy that I can go to the Grand Prix Final, that was my goal. I don’t know yet what my (program) content will be, but my goal will be as always to skate clean,” the Skate America champion added.
After announcing his retirement in 2018, China’s Han Yan made a stunning return to competitive ice at 2019 Cup of China on Friday, capturing the lead in the men’s short program over his countryman Boyang Jin.
On a day when four of the top five men took a tumble, Han remained upright in his short program to “A Thousand Years,” a theme that resonated with many fans who felt like it had been since that long since Yan last competed. The 23-year-old opened the program with a solid triple Axel and never looked back, earning 86.46 points for his efforts. However, one area Han will have to invest time in is the second mark. (His component scores ranged from 7.75 to 9.00 — second best of the day behind Canada’s Keegan Messing).
“I am just very happy to be here. I said I want to come back and I want to fulfil my promise,” Han said. “The short program was not perfect — there were some small mistakes — but it was exciting for me to perform in competition again, and I enjoyed the welcome of the spectators and the judges.”
Jin, who has not had a great start to his season (sixth at Skate America), once again failed to nail the opening quad Lutz in his program. He doubled the jump in Las Vegas (for which he received no points) and fell on it at this competition. However, he went on to execute the remaining jumps he had planned in his routine set to ‘First Light,’ and finished second with 85.43 points. Jin later explained he had “too much power going into the first jump, lost control and fell. Overall I felt very positive, but I did not quite show my training level today.”
Italy’s Matteo Rizzo landed the opening quad toe loop and triple Axel but then fell on a triple Lutz, the first jump in an intended combination. That mistake cost him dearly. Rizzo closed out the day in third with a season high score of 81.72. “It is great to be back in China. It is already the second time for me this season,” he said. “As for my performance, obviously I am not happy with what I’ve done. I made a huge mistake. But I’m happy with the beginning of the program, it was quite strong.”
Camden Pulkinen of the U.S. continues to impress in his senior debut season, finishing fourth with 78.92 points. Messing sits in fifth (76.80 points) ahead of 2019 Skate Canada bronze medalist Keiji Tanaka of Japan (74.64).
China’s Wenjing Sui and Cong Han were the class of the pairs field and had no trouble twirling to the top of the leaderboard in Chongqing. The duo delivered a solid performance to “Blues DeLuxe” (choreographed by Lori Nichol) and earned 80.90 points to take a solid lead. “This is our first competition of the season and we were a bit tight. That affected the quality of some of the elements, but it was a good performance. We skated like we do in training,” Han explained.
Canada’s Liubov Ilyushechkina and Charlie Bilodeau took it up a notch over their debut at Skate Canada, skating into second place with 68.98, 0.36 of a point higher than they scored in Kelowna. “We really like the feeling we’ve developed for this short program and it was quite stable,” Ilyushechkina said. “There were some mistakes, but we got our lucky ‘68,’ and it was a season’s best.”
Chen Peng and Yang Jin of China, the victors at Skate America, sit in third with 68.50 points. “Except for the mistake on the jump we are quite pleased. I feel we have improved the performance aspect since our last Grand Prix. My partner got injured at Skate America and we have not practiced the jumps much,” Jin explained.
Italy’s Nicole Della Monica and Matteo Guarise finished fourth with 64.24 points after both took a tumble on the side-by-side jumps. Tarah Kayne and Danny O’Shea of the U.S. rank fifth with 64.08.
