Wenjing Sui/Cong Han  claim the title

Credit: ISU

Wenjing Sui/Cong Han claim the title


ISU World Champions Wenjing Sui/Cong Han (CHN) claimed their first ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final title as the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final continued in Torino (ITA) Friday. Alena Kostornaia (RUS) won the Ladies Short Program with a new record score while four-time ISU World Champions Gabriella Papadakis/Guillaume Cizeron (FRA) earned the lead in the Rhythm Dance.

Papadakis/Cizeron (FRA) dance to narrow lead in Rhythm Dance
Four-time World Champions Gabriella Papadakis/Guillaume Cizeron of France danced to a narrow lead in the Rhythm Dance. Defending ISU Grand Prix Final Champions Madison Hubbell/Zachary Donohue (USA) are just a little over a point behind in second place while Madison Chock/Evan Bates (USA) came third in the first segment of the Ice Dance event. The competition was very close with the top five teams being separated by less than three points.

Performing to “Fame”, Papadakis/Cizeron produced excellent twizzles and a stationary lift that merited a level four while the Finnstep pattern and the Pattern Dance type step sequence were rated a level three. However, Papadakis stumbled in the midline step sequence. The five-time European Champions scored 83.83 points.

“We were looking for music in the summer, because the theme is musicals. And we found that Fame from the eighties. We love the idea, looking for music and designing the costumes,” Papadakis said. “We had a couple of mistakes in the step sequence, which explains why we didn’t get that much of the scores, but we’ve had high scores in the previous Grand Prix, and it’s fine, we might just be tired from the last two Grand Prix competitions. We will do better tomorrow, to improve and prepared,” she continued.

Hubbell/Donohue’s Marilyn Monroe themed dance to “My Heart Belongs To Daddy” and “Let’s Be Bad” was highlighted by a straight line lift and a precise Finnstep Pattern. The 2019 World bronze medalists picked up 82.72 points.

“I think once you get to the Grand Prix Final there’s such a curated group of skaters it’s always going to be really close. I think everyone skated really well, pretty strong performances from what I see, but it was a tough panel and not everyone got the levels they were hoping for,” Hubbell shared. “From a performance standpoint I think it’s what we’ve been working towards - being able to push through the whole program and not even think about fatigue but just really being committed to the character, and more so than the character, being committed to performing with each other,” Donohue added.

Chock/Bates put out a characteristic dance to “Too Darn Hot” and picked up a level four for the lift and the twizzles for a score of 81.67 points. “It feels great to be at this event. It’s such a prestigious event, arguably the most prestigious of the whole season in a non-Olympic year, and it’s just wonderful to be here among the best in the world. We’ve had a great season thus far and we got a season’s best in the short. We’ll have to look at the protocols to see where we can get some more points but overall we’re happy with how we skated,” Bates told the press.

2019 World silver medalists Victoria Sinitsina/Nikita Katsalapov (RUS) are not far behind in fourth place after he stumbled on a twizzle (81.51 points). Alexandra Stepanova/Ivan Bukin (RUS) follow in fifth place on 81.14 points and Piper Gilles/Paul Poirier (CAN) finished sixth (79.53 points).

Kostornaia (RUS) sets new record score to win Ladies Short Program
Alena Kostornaia of Russia set a new record score to win the Ladies Short Program ahead of teammates Alina Zagitova and Anna Shcherbakova.
Skating to “November” and “Departure” by Max Richter, Kostornaia reeled off a triple Axel, triple Lutz, triple flip-triple toe as well as exquisite spins and footwork. The 2018 ISU Junior Grand Prix Final Champion surpassed her own Short Program record score established at NHK Trophy with 85.45 points. “I’m very happy because I did my best, I tried to skate my program clean and I enjoyed it,” the 2018 World Junior silver medalist said. “When I step out on the ice I don’t think about numbers, I just do what I do and after that the judges decide. I don’t go for any records, I just skate,” she added when asked about setting a new record score.

Zagitova gave an emotional performance to “Me Voy” by Jasmin Levy, completing a triple Lutz-triple loop combination, double Axel, triple flip as well as difficult steps and spins. The 2018 Olympic Champion picked up a season’s best of 79.60 points. “I got a season’s best score, and I’m happy about that. However, it is not my personal best so there is room to grow. I feel like I could have skated with more commitment. I was keeping the maximum of control and so I feel I was a bit tight,” the 2019 World Champion commented. “I already forgot that I’m the Olympic Champion. I started from scratch. I just want to go out and skate,” she continued.

Shcherbakova’s performance to “Perfume. The Story of a Murderer” featured a triple Lutz-triple loop combination, a triple flip and double Axel as well as level-four spins and footwork. The 2019 World Junior silver medalist set a new personal best with 78.27 points. “I am in a very good mood after that skate, I felt very happy doing everything today. All practices had been really good so I could go into the program very calm and I am completely happy with everything I did today. They say you can’t win a competition on the short program but you can lose it, so this is a good starting point,” the Russian Champion shared.

Bradie Tennell (USA) sits in fourth on 72.20 points. 2019 World Junior Champion Alexandra Trusova (RUS) fell on her triple Axel to finish fifth on 71.45 points. Defending ISU Grand Prix Final Champion Rika Kihira (JPN) landed a shaky triple Axel but missed her triple flip-triple toeloop combination to place sixth on 70.71 points.

Sui/Han (CHN) claim first Grand Prix Final crown
Olympic silver medalists Wenjing Sui/Cong Han of China added the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final title to their impressive resume. Teammates Cheng Peng/Yang Jin repeated as Grand Prix Final silver medalists. Newcomers Anastasia Mishina/Alexander Galliamov of Russia claimed the bronze medal.

Skating to “Rain, In Your Black Eyes”, Sui/Han completed a triple twist, throw triple Salchow and flip as well as two level-four lifts and a level-four backward outside death spiral. However, Han struggled with the solo jumps. The Olympic silver medalists ranked second in the Free Skating with 134.19 points, but remained in first place on 211.69 points overall.

“This is our fourth time in the Final, before we always missed the Grand Prix Final. We had many problems but we will work on that and make the program better. Before coming here we were quite nervous because we haven’t had the gold medal from Grand Prix Final yet,” Sui explained. “We were also a little exhausted because of the quick turnaround of previous Grand Prix. We also had a lot of problems this time, like the levels and consistency for the jumps, but we will work on those in the future. We are also glad that the other Chinese pair did well and we were able to get gold and silver medals for China,” she added.

Peng/Jin rallied back from a faulty Short Program that had left them in fifth place. The 2019 Skate America Champions turned in a flawless performance to the “Cloud Atlas”, completing a triple toe-double toe combination, a triple twist, throw triple loop and Salchow as well as difficult lifts. The Chinese team won the Free Skating with a season’s best of 134.60 points and totaled 204.27 points to take the silver like they had last year.

“Today I’m really happy we won a silver medal at the Grand Prix Final. For the short program we didn’t do that well but we were able to adjust ourselves mentally and were able to skate a clean free skate smoothly today,” Jin told the press. “Coming here we had some troubles, I lost my luggage, I think it traveled round the world without me, leaving me alone, so I was unable to practice. On short program day my feet weren’t used to the ice but I adjusted well today and overall we are happy with the score and performance and everything was as it needed to be,” he continued.

Mishina/Galliamov’s performance to “The Master and Margarita” featured a triple twist, throw triple flip and loop as well as a triple toe and interesting lifts. The 2019 World Junior Champions picked up 131.55 points and accumulated 203.13 points to pull up from fourth to third in their debut at the senior Final.

“When we came here last time it was a completely different competition for us, junior and senior are two completely different things. Last year (in the Junior Final) there were only three favorites, but this year all the pairs, we didn’t know what to expect,” Galliamov shared. “After the short program we pulled ourselves together and started from scratch.”

Aleksandra Boikova/Dmitrii Kozlovskii (RUS) slipped from second to fourth after some errors (201.84 points). Kirsten Moore-Towers/Michael Marinaro (CAN) finished fifth (197.99 points) while Daria Pavliuchenko/Denis Khodykin (RUS) dropped from third to sixth place.

Schedule of the event
Saturday, December 7 Men’s Free Skating,
Junior Pairs & Men’s Free Skating,
Junior Free Dance,
Free Dance & Ladies Free Skating
Sunday, December 8 Exhibition Gala