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Post by Admin on Dec 1, 2014 20:56:00 GMT
Canadian figure skating duo Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford secured their spot in the Grand Prix Final with victory at the NHK Trophy - their second win of the season. The pair found themselves ahead after the short program with a score of 72.7 and supplemented that with a free skating score of 127.08. The victory came with a few hiccups - including a fall by Duhamel - but they finished comfortably ahead of Russia's Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov in second. The Russian's were second after the short program but placed third in the free skating behind China's Xiaoyu YU and Yang Jin. However, Yu and Jin's free skating score of 121.85 was not enough to overhaul the Russians and they had to settle for third.
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Post by Admin on Dec 3, 2014 20:51:24 GMT
Olympic and World champion Yuzuru Hanyu earned the last berth in the Grand Prix Final by finishing fourth — barely — at the NHK Trophy in Osaka, Japan, on Saturday. Hanyu fell in both of his programs at NHK Trophy, not at his best three weeks after a warm-up collision at the Cup of China. “I feel I made the right decision to compete,” Hanyu said, according to the Japan Times. “I wasn’t in the best shape physically or mentally, but am proud that I was able to take part in the two events after the accident happened.” He finished 16.27 points behind winner Daisuke Murakami on Saturday. More importantly, he finished .15 ahead of American Jeremy Abbott. Had Abbott beaten Hanyu, American Jason Brown would have made the Grand Prix Final over Hanyu. The Grand Prix Final, which is in two weeks in Barcelona, is the biggest annual international competition outside the World Championships. It takes the top six skaters per discipline from the six-event Grand Prix series, which concluded with NHK Trophy. A U.S. man didn’t qualify for the Grand Prix Final for a third straight year. At no other stretch in the 20-year history of the series had U.S. men gone back-to-back years shut out of the Grand Prix Final. Brown performed the best of the U.S. men in the Grand Prix season and will be favored to win his first U.S. title in January. Abbott is among the contenders to grab one of three U.S. men’s spots in the World Championships in March. Murakami, who formerly represented the U.S., rallied from third after the short program to notch the biggest win of his career in his first Grand Prix appearance in three years. NHK Trophy men’s results 1. Daisuke Murakami (JPN) — 246.07 2. Sergey Voronov (RUS) — 236.65 3. Takahito Mura (JPN) — 234.44 4. Yuzuru Hanyu (JPN) — 229.8 5. Jeremy Abbott (USA) — 229.65 7. Ross Miner (USA) — 205.36 11. Josh Farris (USA) — 169.88
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Post by Admin on Dec 6, 2014 21:05:07 GMT
Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje of Canada won the ice dance event at the NHK Trophy on Sunday to secure a spot in the Grand Prix Final. Weaver and Poje, who were first after the short dance, won the free dance on Sunday to finish with a total of 169.42 points and claim their second Grand Prix series title following a win at Skate Canada. "We're very happy, it's our first NHK title," Poje said. "We were happy with our performance today but we made a couple of mistakes that we definitely want to fix before the GP Final." Weaver and Poje, silver medalists at the 2014 world championships, join Canadian pairs compatriots Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford as the winners of two Grand Prix events this season and will skate at the Grand Prix Final in Barcelona Dec. 11-14. Both the ice dancers and the pairs duos won titles at Skate Canada and the NHK Trophy. Weaver and Poje earned a berth at the Dec. 11-14 Grand Prix Final in Barcelona. Madison Chock and Evan Bates of United States, plus Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France previously qualified.
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Post by Admin on Dec 11, 2014 20:52:02 GMT
The best thing about this competition is seeing competitors go head to head who, in many cases, won’t be facing each other again until the world championships in March 2015. The pairs’ event is the first case that comes to mind, where Canadians Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford will be facing off against Russian dynamos Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov. While the Russians may have the edge in style, the Canadians are more than their equals in technical prowess and sheer gumption. This should be a great event that might tell us a little of what each team will need when they meet again to decide the world title. The men’s event is interesting for a different reason: Javier Fernandez is Spain’s great hope to take the world title this season. He has been knocking at the door but his occasional struggles with nerves while trying to perform some of the very best technical elements has occasionally gotten the best of him. From a sentimental standpoint, I’m hoping that a breakthrough performance and win in Barcelona could be the nudge that Spain needs to get bitten with the skating bug. I’m waiting for American Ashley Wagner to dazzle and I’m hoping that the Barcelona ladies’ event will be the place. The truth is her toughest competitors, the Russians, are up to their Axel in talent. I think that two-time junior world champion Elena Radionova has such momentum after this season’s two Grand Prix wins that this is her title to lose. Yuzuru Hanyu (Japan): In retrospect, it may have been risky for the Olympic and world champion to compete at the recent NHK event while still battling pain in his lower extremities from his spectacular crash in warm-up earlier in the season. It’s not just the Grand Prix title at stake — it’s also his own readiness for the Japanese nationals in two weeks’ time. The truth is, anything can happen and often does, and at this point Yuzuru may or may not be able to qualify for worlds. Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford (Canada): It’s do-or-die time for the Canadian pair. If they want the world title, it starts here. Expect them to skate the lights out in both the short and free programs if they want to stay ahead of Stolbova and Klimov. Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje (Canada): The best kind of skating to watch is when the skaters are more interested in the performance than the results. This is how I see ice dancers Weaver and Poje this year and I'm keen to see how that joie de vivre translates into a great live fan experience. Riko Hongo (Japan): I’m sorry that American Gracie Gold had to pull out of the Grand Prix Final with a stress fracture to her foot. I’m not sorry, however, to get a second look at Hongo, a charming 18-year-old who took her first Grand Prix medal, a gold, at the Rostelecom Cup a couple of weeks ago after a fifth-place finish at Skate Canada.
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Post by Admin on Dec 12, 2014 20:45:51 GMT
Trio of #russian ladies. Top 3 after Short Program: @tyktamisheva #Lipnitskaia @radlen99 #gpfbarcelona Elizaveta Tuktamysheva led a Russian teen sweep of the short program at the Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final on Thursday. The 17-year-old Tuktamysheva earned a top score of 67.52 points performing to Ravel's "Bolero" on the temporary rink inside Barcelona's International Convention Center. "I knew I was competing against the strongest girls in the world," said Tuktamysheva. "I was scared the smallest mistake would move me down (the rankings) so I had the motivation to skate clean." European champion Julia Lipnitskaia, who is 16, was next with 66.24, followed by Elena Radionova (15) and Anna Pogorilaya (16). Japan's Rika Hongo was fifth, while a shaky performance by 23-year-old American Ashley Wagner received the lowest score of the six finalists with 60.24. "These younger girls are so strong technically," said Wagner. Radionova the only woman to come to Barcelona with gold in both her Grand Prix assignments fell on a triple loop in Spanish-themed skate to Pepe Romero's 'De mi vera te fuistes' to trail on 63.89. "Maybe I was nervous, maybe I was tired," the 15-year-old said. "I just want to improve in the free skating."
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