ISU : Full Story

The NHK Trophy in Sendai, Japan opened Thursday with the Compulsory Dance and the Pairs Short Program. The NHK Trophy is the sixth and last event of the 2007/2008 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating and held for the first time in Sendai. The skaters compete for a global prize money of US $ 180, 000 per individual event of the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating and receive points according to their placements. The top six skaters/couples then qualify for the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final in Torino, Italy (December 13-16). Skaters are vying for the last open spots for the Final at NHK Trophy.

Ice Dancing, Compulsory Dance
The Compulsory Dance at NHK Trophy is the Argentine Tango. The Argentine Tango was created by Reginald J. Wilkie and Daphne B. Wallis. It was first performed in London in 1934.

Isabelle Delobel/Olivier Schoenfelder of France took the lead while Canadians Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir edged out Russia’s Jana Khokhlova/Sergei Novitski by less than one point for second place.

Delobel/Schoenfelder turned in a mature and sophisticated performance of the Argentine Tango, showing off strong edges and their experience. The European Champions picked up 38.96 points (19.94 element score/19.02 program component score). “We did a nice compulsory tonight and we’re happy what we did. There were quite a few people in the audience for the compulsories and it was nice to compete for them”, Delobel commented. “We’ll just stay relaxed and we’ll do what we want to do. Each part of the competition is separate and we’re trying to show our best in each part”, she continued, referring to their lead of 4.32 points.
Virtue/Moir skated also a very elegant and clean Tango to score 34.67 points (17.36/17.31). It was actually the first time they competed this dance in international competition. “The Compulsory went really well. It was similar to how we were training it at home and we’re looking to build on that for our performance tomorrow. As always we’re looking forward to the next step”, Moir said. “I love the Tango, it’s actually one of my favorite dances”, Virtue added. “We’ve always enjoyed the Tango, also the OD last year. It’s passionate. We had more time to train the Yankee Polka (for Skate Canada), because we were more focused on Skate Canada and we had only three weeks in between” (this event and Skate Canada), she continued.
Khokhlova/Novitski’s Argentine Tango was passionate and strong as well, earning them 34.23 points (17.42/17.31). “We were surprised to see so many spectators as usually not so many people are coming to the compulsory dances”, Khokhlova said. “We skated quite well, I think. We didn’t have a long break (since Trophee Bompard two weeks ago), but we still tried to prepare as well as we could.” The couple never skated the dance before in competition, but didn’t feel bothered by that fact. “This is one of the easier and older dances”, Khokhlova pointed out.

Sinead Kerr/John Kerr (GBR) came in fourth at 31.79 points followed by Kristin Fraser/Igor Lukanin (AZE) with 29.85 points.

Pairs, Short Program
Aliona Savchenko/Robin Szolkowy of Germany won the Pairs Short Program ahead of Tatiana Volosozhar/Stanislav Morozov (UKR) and Canada’s Jessica Dubé/Bryce Davison.

Savchenko/Szolkowy, who were the top ranked couple and skated last, gave an excellent performance to the “Bollywood” soundtrack of “Asoka”. The European Champions hit a throw triple flip, a triple flip, a side by side triple toe and a difficult Axel Lasso to score a new personal best of 70.32 points (39.92 element score/30.40 program component score). Their death spiral was graded a level four, and their pair combination spin and their intricate interweaving straight line step sequence were graded a level three. “Our program today was much better than last week in Moscow (at the Cup of Russia)”, Szolkowy told the press. “We still had a few small mistakes in the elements and there are things left to work on. For tomorrow we want to skate a clean program and want to show what we do in training.” His partner explained: “This program was a mutual idea of myself and our coach (Ingo Steuer), and Robin agreed to it.”
Skating to “The Feeling Begins” by Peter Gabriel, Volosozhar/Morozov produced a side by side triple toeloop, big triple twist and throw triple loop as well as an Axel Lasso with an one armed entry. However, their pair combination spin and their death spiral got only a level one. The Ukrainians scored 60.14 points (34.62/25.52), surpassing their previous personal best of 57.62 points. “We skated quite well, we still had some little mistakes and there is room for improvement”, Volosozhar said. Asked about working now with Nikolai Morozov in addition to long time coach Galina Kukhar, Stanislav Morozov – who is not related to Nikolai – answered: “We’ve been working with Nikolai since May. The first three months we basically worked on skating skills and footwork with him.”
Dubé/Davison had to overcome a rough start into their “Galicia Flamenco” program when she went down on their first element, the triple Salchow. The Skate America Champions recovered to land a double twist and a throw triple loop and showed two level-four spins. The Canadians earned 58.16 points (32.92/26.24). “Our short program was probably our weakest performance on the Grand Prix circuit this year”, Davison admitted. “I think we’re going to learn from that. We can’t always skate perfect. It was a little bit shaky. For tomorrow we’re just looking to reverse all that and have a good performance and up our speed and our performance level.”

World Junior Champions Keauna McLaughlin/Rockne Brubaker (USA) finished fourth after she stumbled on the side by side triple Salchow and fell on the throw triple loop (55.66 points). Anabelle Langlois/Cody Hay (CAN) are currently ranked 5^th. She stepped out of the landing of the throw triple Lutz and also put her hand down (54.24 points).

For full results, please refer to Results. The NHK Trophy continues Friday with the Original Dance, the Ladies Short Program and the Pairs Free Skating.