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Post by Admin on Dec 4, 2019 20:42:48 GMT
Yuzuru Hanyu and Nathan Chen both fell in practice ahead of the 2019 Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final. But of perhaps greater significance to the duel between the sport's big two was the double Olympic champion landing a quad Lutz despite it not being in his planned program content. Hanyu sustained an ankle injury attempting that element in training at the 2017 NHK Trophy which ruled him out of action until PyeongChang 2018 where he successfully defended his Olympic title. It means the Japanese, who turns 25 on Saturday, has four different quad jumps at his disposal for the free skate. Hanyu will want to improve on his quad loop having fallen twice attempting the jump in practice. One of those came at the start of his run through of his free skate 'Origin', although the rest of his jumps - including quad toe loops, quad Salchows and triple Axels - were on point. For a change, coach Brian Orser was not at rinkside as he was coaching "Future Olympians" at Toronto Cricket Club. But he is expected to be in Turin in time for tomorrow's short program, starting at 21:10 local time, as Hanyu and Chen meet for the first time since the American retained his world title in Saitama in March.
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Post by Admin on Dec 4, 2019 22:02:07 GMT
Alina Zagitova (RUS) The reigning World champion has developed more and more into a beautiful skater and performer over the past two seasons. During the 2019-20 Grand Prix series, the 17-year-old from Moscow had some issues with underrotations and nerves. Without a triple Axel or a quad, the Olympic champion needs to skate absolutely clean and collect as many positive grades of execution (GOE) as possible to be competitive with the other ladies in the Final and to have a shot at the podium.
Event SP Score FS Score Total Score 2019 Internationaux de France 74.24 (SB) 141.82 216.06 2019 NHK Trophy 66.84 151.15 (SB) 217.99 (SB)
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Post by Admin on Dec 5, 2019 18:10:36 GMT
Russian team 'no show' at ladies' practice Bradie Tennell and Rika Kihira were the only two women to take part in practice for the ladies' singles.
That's because the four Russians in the field - Alexandra Trusova, Anna Shcherbakova, Alena Kostornaia and reigning world and Olympic champion Alina Zagitova - had yet to arrive in Turin.
ISU press attaché Tatjana Flade told Sport24.ru that the quartet, all trained in Moscow by Eteri Tutberidze, spent more time preparing at home before flying out this afternoon with the short program not taking place until Friday.
The three first-season seniors look to be fighting it out for victory in Italy between themselves after sweeping all six Grand Prix events.
While twice world junior champion Trusova is the best known of the trio thanks to her quad-jumping exploits, Shcherbakova beat her by 0.07 points to take the Russian national title last December.
Defending Grand Prix Final champion Kihira landed a triple Axel in a clean short program run through while Tennell, who was in full costume, was not quite foot-perfect as she practised her free skate.
Kihira has a quad Salchow in her planned free skate program as she attempts to close the gap to the three young Russians in their first senior seasons.
The 17-year-old attempted it in practice without success, but may try it again in practice on Thursday.
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Post by Admin on Dec 5, 2019 21:27:47 GMT
The pair had to make the draw for the absent Russians with Tennell, who will skate fifth in the short program, speaking to Olympic Channel afterwards. The team bronze medallist from PyeongChang 2018 said, "I am super-excited to be here. It was a really tough Grand Prix series in addition to me also not having very much time to prepare so I'm very proud that I made it here. "And I'm really just looking forward to skating in this arena. I remember watching the Olympics on TV when I was eight years old here so it's very cool for me to be here in this building. And I really just want to enjoy the experience."
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Post by Admin on Dec 6, 2019 1:58:24 GMT
A brilliant Nathan Chen outscored a flawed Yuzuru Hanyu for a fourth straight head-to-head program, taking a 12.95-point lead at the Grand Prix Final in Turin, Italy, on Thursday. Chen, the two-time reigning world champion, tallied 110.38 points going into Saturday’s free skate. He landed a quadruple Lutz, triple Axel and quad toe loop-triple toe loop combination. It’s the highest short program score in the world this season, leading the American to say “wow” in the kiss-and-cry area. His coach, the often-gruff Rafael Arutyunyan, banged his knee against his pupil’s. Hanyu, the two-time reigning Olympic champion, hit a quadruple Salchow and triple Axel but then stepped out of a quad toe landing. He therefore failed to include a required jumping combination and ended up in second place. “I wanted to do a great performance and do a good competition against [Chen], but that didn’t happen this time,” Hanyu, who was without longtime coach Brian Orser, or any other coach, said through a translator. Hanyu said Orser was busy last week, so he chose to use his lone accreditation on another coach who had travel delays. Hanyu is not out of title contention. His world-leading free skate score this season is 16.61 points better than Chen’s best free skate from the fall Grand Prix Series. Chen is undefeated since placing fifth at the PyeongChang Olympics, but this is just his second head-to-head with Hanyu in that span. Chen defeated Hanyu at March’s world championships, where the Japanese megastar was likely affected by an ankle injury. After Thursday’s program, Chen repeated what he said before the competition: he still feels like he’s chasing Hanyu. “Yuzu is like the goat, he’s the greatest of all time, really,” Chen said. “So, to have this opportunity to be able to share the ice with a guy like that, someone that I’ve looked up to for a long time, someone that I’ve watched grow up through the junior ranks when I was like a baby, it’s really cool to be able see him now. It’s really cool to even just be able to see him person.”
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