Credit: ISU
Free Dance & Men Free Skating
France’s Gabriella Papadakis/Guillaume Cizeron once more reigned supreme on the ice to dance to their fourth World title as the ISU World Figure Skating Championships continued in Saitama (JPN) on Saturday. Victoria Sinitsina/Nikita Katsalapov claimed the silver, their first World medal, while Madison Hubbell/Zachary Donohue (USA) pulled up one spot to earn the bronze. All three couples posted a new seasons best score.
Skating last, Papadakis/Cizeron turned in a mesmerizing performance of their dance to “Duet” and “Sunday Afternoon” by Rachael Yamagata, executing difficult lifts and footwork effortlessly. The Oly collecting a level four for all seven elements and a total of 26 perfect 10.00 in the program component scores. The Olympic silver medalists earned 134.23 points for the Free Dance and totaled 222.65 points. Both scores are new highest scores in Ice Dance. “We’re very, very happy with our performance. It was a great performance,” Papadakis said. “It is always a challenge. We wanted to win the competition and this year focused on what we want to achieve. It is a tough competition with lots of competitors and it is not easy to fight against the stress and pressure. We’re just very proud we did it again this year,” she continued.
Sinitsina/Katsalapov’s fluid dance to “Air” by Johann Sebastian Bach and Praeludium and Allegro by Fritz Kreisler was highlighted by beautiful lifts and smooth steps. The Russian Champions had a level four for their elements as well and were awarded 127.82 points which added up to 211.76 points. “This competition went really well for us. We’ve prepared a lot and worked very hard for this and the work paid off,” Katsalapov told the press. “However, there is only one medal in the sport, and that is the gold medal. We’re on the right track,” he added.
Hubbell/Donohue delivered an excellent performance to “Romeo and Juliet”, with difficult lifts and footwork. The 2018 World silver medalists achieved the same levels as the French and Russian teams and picked up 127.31 points for their Free Dance. With a total of 210.40 points, they pulled up from fourth to win their second consecutive World medal. “Zac and me are incredibly pleased with our performance today. This has been arguably our best season, our best calendar year starting last World Championships in Milan. We have grown so much as a team, and our programs, especially the free dance, has shown that growth changing from competition to competition,” Hubbell commented.
Alexandra Stepanova/Ivan Bukin (RUS) turned in a strong performance of their Blues program as well, but nevertheless slipped from third to fourth at 208.52 points. Kaitlyn Weaver/Andrew Poje (CAN) placed fifth (205.62 points) followed by 2019 Four Continents Champions Madison Chock/Evan Bates (USA) in sixth on 82.32 points.
Nathan Chen (USA) repeats as World Champion, sets record score in Saitama
Nathan Chen (USA) repeated as World Champion in what was a spectacular Men’s Final at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships in Saitama (JPN) on Saturday. Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu pulled up one spot to claim the silver, his sixth Word medal. Vincent Zhou (USA) took the bronze, his first medal at the World Championships.
Chen had drawn to skate after Hanyu, who had set the 18,000 spectators at a sold out arena on fire with his performance. Nevertheless, the 19-year-old remained composed and put out a clean program to “Land of All” by Woodkid, pulling off a quad Lutz, flip, quad toe and quad toe-triple toe as well as five triples including an Axel. The 2018 World Champion collected a level four for his spins and footwork and set a new highest score in the Free Skating with 216.02 points. He racked up 323.42 points. “It’s an amazing feeling to be up here with these two guys. This competition went awesome. I’m proud of myself for being able to put out two pretty strong programs and ultimately just happy with how it went and I hope to have more experiences like this,” Chen said. “Every time Yuzu (Yuzuru Hanyu) skates, he does something amazing and incredible and it’s just a huge honor to be able to skate with him, skate after him, especially knowing how he sets the bar. It’s great to be able to follow that,” the U.S. Champion shared.
Hanyu, who stood in third place following the Short Program, delivered as well and hit a quad loop, quad toe, his unique quad toe-triple Axel sequence plus five triple jumps in his routine to “Art on Ice” by Edvin Marton. The only glitch was a shaky and underrotated quad Salchow. With 206.10 points for the Free Skating, the two-time Olympic Champion ranked second in this segment and second overall on 300.97 points. “I had one mistake in my free program, but I am pleased that I could perform well on the World Championships. I think a lot of people have been watching the competition since the official training session and were worried about my quadruple loop, but I somehow managed to land it. I really wanted to win when I was skating,” the two-time World Champion said. “But I lost, that is about it. I think I did my best, but the problem is that in figure skating competition consists of two days, and I am losing in both. It means that I simple do not have enough strength to win,” he continued.
Zhou’s performance to “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon” featured a quad Lutz-triple toe combination, quad Salchow and four clean triples but he underrotated a quad toe and a triple flip. The 18-year-old scored 186.99 points, a seasons best, and totaled 281.16 points. “It’s still kind of hard to believe it actually happened. This is the best result that I could have possibly hoped for and to share the podium with Nathan Chen and Yuzuru Hanyu is unbelievable,” the Four Continents bronze medalist commented.
For the first time since 1996, two U.S. Men are on the World podium. Back then, Todd Eldredge had won gold and Rudy Galindo took bronze.
2018 Olympic and World silver medalist Shoma Uno (JPN) struggled with the quad Salchow and flip, but landed two quad toes to move up from sixth to fourth place at 270.32 points. Boyang Jin (CHN) came from ninth to finish fifth (262.71 points), edging Mikhail Kolyada (RUS), who climbed from tenth to sixth (262.44 points). Jason Brown (USA) on the other hand dropped from second to ninth after a few errors.