2021 ISU World Ice Dance Champions Victoria Sinitsina/Nikita Katsalapov of Russia danced to the gold in style at the ISU Grand Prix NHK Trophy in Tokyo (JPN) on Saturday. Two-time World medalists Madison Chock/Evan Bates (USA) earned the silver medal and Great Britain’s Lilah Fear/Lewis Gibson claimed the bronze.
Victoria Sinitsina/Nikita Katsalapov (RUS) © International Skating Union (ISU)
Sinitsina/Katsalapov put out a romantic, fluid dance to Sergei Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto that was highlighted by beautiful lifts and smooth step sequences. The 2020 ISU European Champions picked up a level four for the lifts, combination spin and twizzles. However, the midline step sequence and the one foot step sequence were rated a level two (and level one for her part). The Muscovites scored 129.11 points and accumulated 215.44 overall for their fourth ISU Grand Prix title.
“We really enjoyed performing today thanks to the audience. We did a good job for this moment, but we will continue to improve for the next competition,” Sinitsina noted. “Our program is about us, our career, hopefully with a bright finish,” Katsalapov shared.
Chock/Bates had a shaky start io their unique program as alien and astronaut to music by Daft Punk when he fell right at the beginning. The two-time ISU Four Continents Champions recovered instantly and continued without further mistakes, collecting a level four for four elements and a level three for two elements. The Skate America silver medalists earned 124.76 points and remained in second place at 210.78 points.
Madison Chock/Evan Bates (USA) © International Skating Union (ISU)
“Today’s performance was an interesting one, mostly because I fell within the first 20 seconds of the program on a transition before the first element,” Bates said. “I never experienced something like that before. We responded well and put together a good performance considering the early mishap. We learned something from that type of performance."
Fear/Gibson entertained the crowd in the Yoyogi Stadium with their upbeat performance to “The Lion King” that featured a spectacular stationary-rotational lift and two more level-four elements. However, Gibson wobbled on the twizzles. They 2019 Skate Canada bronze medalists netted 115.58 points and took the second ISU Grand Prix medal of their career with 191.91 points.
Lilah Fear/Lewis Gibson (GBR) © International Skating Union (ISU)
“I think we put in a lot of work in the days between Skate Canada and coming here,” Fear commented. “We had a lot of improvements to make and a lot of feedback from that competition so I was happy with what we put out and I feel like we implemented a lot of the things that we worked on."
Sara Hurtado/Kirill Khaliavin (ESP) came fourth with their dance to “Stairway to Heaven” (188.09 points). Majorie Lajoie/Zachary Lagha (CAN) came fifth with their lively dance to the “Rio” soundtrack (187.38 points). Kana Muramoto and Daisuke Takahashi (JPN), the 2010 Olympic bronze medalist in single skating who switched to Ice Dance in 2020, finished sixth (179.50 points) with their balletic dance to “La Bayadere”.