Olympic silver medalists Wenjing Sui/Cong Han of China added the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final title to their impressive resume Friday in Torino (ITA). 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.
Wenjing Sui/Cong Han of China 2019©International Skating Union (ISU)
“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.
Cheng Peng/Yang Jin of China 2019©International Skating Union (ISU)
“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 travelled round the world without me, leaving me alone, so I was unable to practise. 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."
Anastasia Mishina/Alexander Galliamov of Russia 2019©International Skating Union (ISU)
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
Where to watch and follow the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating 2019?
Viewers will be able to watch the Series either via their national broadcaster / channel. For countries where there are no broadcasters, the ISU will offer a live stream on the Skating ISU YouTube Channel. For the first time the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final live stream on the Skating ISU YouTube Channel will include English commentary.
You will find the full list in the Where to watch news here.
Subscribe to the ISU Newsletter to receive the latest information and the “Where to Watch” news and you can also subscribe to the Skating ISU YouTube Channel to receive notifications when live streams start or new videos are published.
Highlights, clips, interviews, behind the scenes:
YouTube: ISU Skating
Facebook: @ISU Figure Skating
Twitter: @ISU_Figure
Follow the conversation with #GPFigure.
ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating 2019/20
Skate America - Las Vegas (USA) – October 18 – 20
Skate Canada International – Kelowna (CAN) – October 25 – 27
Internationaux de France – Grenoble (FRA) – Novembre 1 – 3
SHISEIDO cup of China – Chongqing (CHN) – November 8 – 10
Rostelecom Cup – Moscow (RUS) – November 15 – 17
NHK Trophy – Sapporo (JPN) – November 22 – 24
ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final (Senior & Junior) – Torino (ITA) – December 5 – 8
