Skate Canada International opened Friday in Windsor, Ontario, with the Ladies, Pairs, Men's Short Programs and the Short Dance. Skate Canada International is the second of six event in the 2012/2013 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating series.
Elene Gedevanishvili (GEO) captures Ladies Short Program
Georgia's Elene Gedevanishvili captured the Ladies Short Program, edging out Canadian Kaetlyn Osmond. Ksenia Makarova of Russia came third.
Skating to Schindler's List, Gedevanishvili hit a triple Salchow, double Axel, but the back end of her triple Lutz-triple toe combination was underrotated. The two-time European bronze medalist picked up 60.80 points. I am a little shocked, Gedevanishvili said. My practices have been going well and I trained a lot. This music and this program is very special to me, she added.
Osmond's Latin routine to Mambo No. 8 and Gwendoline featured a triple toe-triple toe combination, a triple flip, double Ael and two level four spins. The 16-year-old scored a new personal best of 60.56 points. With how I skated with my personal best, to sit there and watch the others skaters I learned a lot and it was just kind of fun to wait and see their scores, the Canadian told the press.
Makarova landed a triple toe-triple toe, a triple loop and got a level four for two spins and the footwork, but she popped her Axel in her program to Maria and the Violin's String. The Russian earned 58.56 points. My last season wasn't good at all, but today I really had fun. I enjoyed it so much, I got disoriented in half my program, because I was so into the emotion. Today was probably the best feeling I had in a long time, Makarova shared.
Kanako Murakami (JPN) placed fourth at 56.21 points and World bronze medalist Akiko Suzuki (JPN) is sitting in fifth after her triple toe-triple toe combo was downgraded (55.12 points). Elizaveta Tuktamysheva (RUS) rounds up the top six with 55.10 points.
Aliona Savchenko/Robin Szolkowy (GER) skate to lead in Pairs Short Program
Aliona Savchenko/Robin Szolkowy of Germany skated to the lead in the Pairs Short Program. Canada's Meagan Duhamel/Eric Radford and Stefania Berton/Ondrej Hotarek of Italy follow in second and third.
Savchenko/Szolkowy opened their program to Kismet by Bond with a huge triple flip followed by a side by side triple toe. The four-time World Champions collected a level four for the death spiral, side by side spin, footwork and the lift to score 72.26 points. This was the first competition of the year, all elements were clean, we got all our levels and we are looking forward to tomorrow, Szolkowy summed up.
Duhamel/Radford's routine to La Boheme included a triple twist, a throw triple Lutz and a rarely seen, if somewhat shaky, side by side triple Lutz as well as three level-four elements. The Canadian Champions earned 64.49 points. We are fairly pleased with our Short Program. We came here prepared to skate better than that, so we did leave some points on the table. We had a couple of stumbles during the choreography on my part, but other than that it went well, Duhamel commented.
Performing to Paint It Black, Berton/Hotarek produced a triple toe, throw triple loop and level-four footwork. The Italian Champions collected 59.79 points. Our practices were close to this performance, but I struggled with the side by side spin. Apart from that we are happy, Berton noted.
Paige Lawrence/Rudi Swiegers (CAN) are currently ranked fourth at 52.88 points and Daria Popova/Bruno Massot (FRA) finished fifth with 48.43 points.
Javier Fernandez (ESP) wins Men's Short Program
Javier Fernandez of Spain won the Men's Short Program. Canada's Patrick Chan edged out Nobunari Oda of Japan for second place.
Fernandez opened his performance to The Mask of Zorro with a solid quadruple toe and a triple Axel and earned a level four for the footwork and the combination spin to score 85.87 points. I feel really good. I think we did a hard season last year and this year the beginning of the season was really strong. We did a lot of nice run-throughs in practice. Tomorrow is another day, I just have to fight tomorrow and to be as good as I can, the Spaniard commented.
Skating to Elegie by Sergei Rachmaninov, Chan downgraded his combination to triple toe-triple toe and stumbled out of his triple Axel, but recovered to complete a triple Lutz and two level-four spins .The two-time World Champion was awarded 82.52 points. The program was great. I really enjoyed skating it. The jumps are jumps, they worked in the six-minutes warm up, they were really great. I think there was a lack of speed going into the quad (in the program), the Canadian Champion offered. I'm very happy with the way the program laid out in between the jumps and in between the jumps. Everything was good quality, he added.
Oda nailed a quad-triple toe combination, a triple Lutz and showed difficult spins to The New Moon in the Old Moon's Arm, but he two-footed the triple Axel. The Japanese picked up 82.14 points. I was really focused on the quad and I did it, so I'm very happy. My coach told me to stay away from the boards and it was better than in practice and I didn't crash into the boards, the 25-year-old told the post-event news conference.
Denis Ten (KAZ) placed fourth at 75.26 points, Florent Amodio (FRA) sits in fifth at 74.61 points and Elladj Balde (CAN) came sixth with 72.46 points.
Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir (CAN) lead Short Dance
Canada's Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir danced to a narrow lead in the Short Dance, edging out Anna Cappellini/Luca Lanotte of Italy by just 0.01 points. Ekaterina Riazanova/Ilia Tkachenko finished third.
Virtue/Moir delivered a elegant Waltz and Polka to The Waltz Goes On by Anthony Hopkins. However, they struggled with their rotational lift that was graded a level one. The twizzles and the first Yankee Polka sequence garnered a level three while the second Polka pattern and the side by side footwork were a level two. The World Champions earned 65.09 points.
Tessa and I felt actually that we skated very well tonight. It was a good start. It was refreshing for Tessa and I to be out there again. We lost a couple of points on the board and we'll have to go back and look at those in the breakdown, but the general feeling today is positive, Moir said.
Cappellini/Lanotte's lively Polka and Waltz to music from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was highlighted by level-four twizzles and a level-four rotational lift. The Italian Champions picked up a level three for the Yankee Polka to post 65.08 points. We are happy with our performance tonight. We had fun. It was definitely an improvement from Finlandia Trophy. It was very enjoyable, Cappellini noted.
Dancing to My Fair Lady, Riazanova/Tkachenko produced smooth footwork and got a level four for the twizzles and their rotational lift. The Russians collected 55.80 points. For the first competition it went pretty well. We didn't compete since Worlds in Nice and we are very happy to be in this competition, Tkachenko commented.
Madison Hubbell/Zachary Donohue (USA) finished fourth at 54.84 points ahead of Piper Gilles/Paul Poirier (CAN) with 53.71 points.
For full entries and results please refer to www.isu.org. Skate Canada International continues Saturday with the Ladies, Pairs Free Skating, Free Dance and Men's Free Skating.