Skate Canada 2012 - Day 1

The 2012 Skate Canada International is the second of six events in the 2012–13 ISU Grand Prix. Organized by Skate Canada, the event was held in the WFCU Centre in Windsor, Ontario from October 26–28, 2012.

Skate Canada International opened Friday with the Ladies, Pairs, Men's Short Programs and the Short Dance.

Ladies Short Program

Georgia's Elene Gedevanishvili captured the Ladies Short Program, over 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. She scored 60.80 points.

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. She scored 60.56 points.

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”. She earned 58.56 points.

Kanako Murakami (JPN) placed fourth at 56.21 points and 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.

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. They collected a level four for the death spiral, side by side spin, footwork and the lift to score 72.26 points. The Germans are always great champions, but could I suggest more chromatic sobriety in their costumes? It was hard to concentrate...

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. They earned 64.49 points. I'm the only one who noticed, or there's something a bit Samuel Contesti about Eric Radford? Maybe it's the suspenders fault...

Performing to “Paint It Black”, Berton/Hotarek produced a triple toe, throw triple loop and level-four footwork. They collected 59.79 points.

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.

Men 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.

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. He was awarded 82.52 points.

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. He picked up 82.14 points.

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.

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. They earned 65.09 points.

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. To see their new coach Shpilband watching them with Paola Mezzadri with a satisfied expression was really a sight.

Dancing to “My Fair Lady”, Riazanova/Tkachenko produced smooth footwork and got a level four for the twizzles and their rotational lift. They collected 55.80 points.

Madison Hubbell/Zachary Donohue (USA) finished fourth at 54.84 points ahead of Piper Gilles/Paul Poirier (CAN) with 53.71 points.

Read More

Cup of China 2012 - Streaming and Entries

The 2012 Cup of China is the third of six events in the 2012–13 ISU Grand Prix. The competition will be held in Shanghai, China from November 2 - 4, 2012. Skaters will earn points toward qualifying for the Grand Prix Final.

Carolina Kostner withdrew from the ladies' event due to insufficient fitness.

Due to the 2012 China anti-Japanese demonstrations, the Japan Skating Federation said it was considaring withdrawing its competitors if the organizers did not provide security guarantees, but now it seems the Federation has decided to send its team to compete in Shanghai despite the ongoing territorial dispute between China and Japan.

Japan's pair Narumi Takahashi / Mervin Tran withdrew in order to undergo surgery.

Poor Narumi! RT @tatjana21: Pair skaters N. Takahashi/M. Tran (JPN) withdrawn from ISU Grand Prix. She has a shoulder injury.
— HotBladesHotPassion (@HBladesHPassion) Ottobre 25, 2012

The entries are as follows.

DANCE

Kaitlyn WEAVER / Andrew POJE CAN
Xintong HUANG / Xun ZHENG CHN
Xiaoyang YU / Chen WANG CHN
Nathalie PECHALAT / Fabian BOURZAT FRA
Charlene GUIGNARD / Marco FABBRI ITA
Ekaterina BOBROVA / Dmitri SOLOVIEV RUS
Victoria SINITSINA / Ruslan ZHIGANSHIN RUS
Madison CHOCK / Evan BATES USA

LADIES

Amelie LACOSTE CAN
Bingwa GENG CHN
Zijun LI CHN
Ying ZHANG CHN
Kiira KORPI FIN
Mao ASADA JPN
Julia LIPNITSKAIA RUS
Sofia BIRYUKOVA RUS
Joshi HELGESSON SWE
Mirai NAGASU USA

MEN

Kevin REYNOLDS CAN
Jinlin GUAN CHN
Nan SONG CHN
Yi WANG CHN
Brian JOUBERT FRA
Tatsuki MACHIDA JPN
Daisuke TAKAHASHI JPN
Artur DMITRIEV RUS
Sergey VORONOV RUS
Adam RIPPON USA

PAIRS

Kirsten MOORE-TOWERS / Dylan MOSCOVITCH CAN
Qing PANG / Jian TONG CHN
Cheng PENG / Hao ZHANG CHN
Wenjing SUI / Cong HAN CHN
Narumi TAKAHASHI / Mervin TRAN JPN
Yuko KAVAGUTI / Alexander SMIRNOV RUS
Ksenia STOLBOVA / Fedor KLIMOVA RUS
Caitlin YANKOWSKAS / Joshua REAGAN USA

Caitlin Yankowskas & Joshua Reagan withdraw from Cup of China due to Reagan's rib injury
— HotBladesHotPassion (@HBladesHPassion) Ottobre 29, 2012

The competition schedule is as follow.

- Friday, Nov. 2
16:00-17:06 SD
17:30-18:50 Ladies SP
19:30-20:50 Men SP
21:15-22:22 Pairs SP
- Saturday, Nov.3
15:00-16:15 FD
16:40-18:13 Ladies FP
18:35-20:13 Men FP
20:35-21:56 Pairs FP
- Sunday, Nov. 4
14:30-17:00 Exhibition

The TV schedule SHOULD be as follow. Remember that times are GMT+1 and in this time zone now it is

- Friday, Nov. 2
09:00 - 10:30 SD on спорт 2 
10:30 - 11:50 Ladies SP on спорт 2 
11:50 - 12:30 SD on спорт 2 
12:30 - 13:50 Men SP on спорт 2 
13:50 - 14:15 Ladies SP on спорт 2 
14:15 - 15:25 Pairs SP on спорт 2 
17:35 - 20:40 SP Highlights on RaiSport2 (geoblocked outside Italy) 
18:30 - 20:30 SP Highlights on Eurosport2 UK 
22:30 - 24:30 SP Highlights on Eurosport2 RUS 

- Saturday, Nov.3
01:00 - 03:00 SP Highlights on Eurosport2 UK 
08:00 - 09:20 FD on спорт 2 
08:00 - 09:15 FD on RaiSport2 (geoblocked outside Italy) 
09:30 - 11:15 Ladies FP on Eurosport UK and Eurosport RUS 
09:40 - 11:15 Ladies FP on спорт 2 
09:40 - 11:15 Ladies FP on RaiSport2 (geoblocked outside Italy) 
11:35 - 13:15 Men FP on спорт 2 
11:35 - 13:05 Men FP on RaiSport2 (geoblocked outside Italy) 
15:55 - 17:00 Pairs FP on RaiSport2 (geoblocked outside Italy) 
22:30 - 24:30 (?) on Eurosport2 RUS 

- Sunday, Nov. 4
07:30 - 09:55 Exhibition on спорт 2 
 15:30 - 17:30 Exhibition on Eurosport2 UK 
18:00 - 19:00 Exhibition (?) on Eurosport RUS 
20:10 - 21:50 Exhibition on спорт 2 

For those having problems watching the competition (stream not loading, broadcasters that changed their schedule...) try

- here (for Skate Canada it worked well)

- here

- here

Please note: live streams will be available approximately 30/60 minutes before start time. You can change the time zone to see changing the times of the streams.

Official site: Cup of China

Read More

Skate America 2012 - Results after FP

Skate America is the first of six events in the ISU Grand Prix series. It is organized by the United States Figure Skating Association. The location changes yearly. This year, the competition was held at the ShoWare Center in Kent, Washington from October 19–21, 2012.

MEN

Pl.   Name Nation TSS = TES + PCS + SS TR PE CH IN Ded. - StN. 1 Takahiko KOZUKA JPN 166.12 81.84 84.28 8.43 8.18 8.57 8.46 8.50 0.00 #9 2 Tatsuki MACHIDA JPN 154.17 75.03 80.14 7.93 7.71 8.11 8.14 8.18 1.00 #7 3 Yuzuru HANYU JPN 148.67 72.11 79.56 8.18 7.89 7.68 8.21 7.82 3.00 #10 4 Michal BREZINA CZE 140.41 69.11 73.30 7.54 6.93 7.36 7.36 7.46 2.00 #5 5 Konstantin MENSHOV RUS 139.21 67.43 71.78 7.36 6.96 7.21 7.18 7.18 0.00 #6 6 Tomas VERNER CZE 138.57 64.63 73.94 7.50 7.00 7.36 7.43 7.68 0.00 #2 7 Armin MAHBANOOZADEH USA 135.38 68.38 68.00 6.82 6.64 6.82 6.86 6.86 1.00 #4 8 Jeremy ABBOTT USA 133.64 55.50 81.14 8.00 7.93 7.82 8.39 8.43 3.00 #8 9 Douglas RAZZANO USA 130.67 68.29 62.38 6.43 5.79 6.54 6.18 6.25 0.00 #1 10 Alexander MAJOROV SWE 121.94 61.02 60.92 6.18 5.82 6.14 6.25 6.07 0.00 #3

FPl. Name Nation Points SP FS 1 Takahiko KOZUKA JPN 251.44 2 1 2 Yuzuru HANYU JPN 243.74 1 3 3 Tatsuki MACHIDA JPN 229.95 4 2 4 Konstantin MENSHOV RUS 212.53 5 5 5 Jeremy ABBOTT USA 211.35 3 8 6 Michal BREZINA CZE 209.67 6 4 7 Armin MAHBANOOZADEH USA 203.65 7 7 8 Tomas VERNER CZE 197.36 9 6 9 Douglas RAZZANO USA 187.73 10 9 10 Alexander MAJOROV SWE 182.42 8 10

Takahiko Kozuka led a Japanese sweep in the Men's event. Kozuka overtook Yuzuru Hanyu for the gold medal and Tatsuki Machida moved up from fourth to claim the bronze.

Kozuka landed a quad toe and five triple jumps in his routine to “Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso” by Camille Saint-Saens, but the second quad toe was underrotated and he fell on a triple Salchow.

Overnight leader Hanyu had a rough start into his “Notre Dame de Paris” program, missing his opening quad toeloop and quad Salchow. He hit five triples but went down again on a triple flip towards the end. “Today’s performance was very close to my worst. I haven’t skated that bad even in practice. I know the importance of skating well in both my short and free skate and I have many things to work on for my free skate and in my short program. I will practice hard and prepare for my next competition”, the 17-year-old commented.

Skating to “Firebird”, Machida produced a seven triple jumps but fell on the quad toe to move up one spot to third. “In today’s performance, I was not perfect but I was able to skate quite well due to the spectators’ help. They really pushed me and I was able to get my first Grand Prix medal”, he noted.

Konstantin Menshov was the only skater to nail two clean quadruple toeloops and pulled up from fifth to fourth. Jeremy Abbott dropped from third to fifth after several errors.

PAIRS

Pl.   Name Nation TSS = TES + PCS + SS TR PE CH IN Ded. - StN. 1 Tatiana VOLOSOZHAR / Maxim TRANKOV RUS 129.29 62.47 67.82 8.54 8.21 8.36 8.64 8.64 1.00 #7 2 Qing PANG / Jian TONG CHN 123.20 57.59 65.61 8.29 7.93 8.21 8.36 8.21 0.00 #6 3 Caydee DENNEY / John COUGHLIN USA 117.47 59.97 57.50 7.18 6.82 7.36 7.29 7.29 0.00 #5 4 Vanessa JAMES / Morgan CIPRES FRA 111.90 58.87 53.03 6.68 6.32 6.86 6.71 6.57 0.00 #4 5 Marissa CASTELLI / Simon SHNAPIR USA 108.52 56.10 52.42 6.50 6.25 6.79 6.61 6.61 0.00 #3 6 Gretchen DONLAN / Andrew SPEROFF USA 90.72 45.54 46.18 5.75 5.50 5.82 5.93 5.86 1.00 #1 7 Danielle MONTALBANO / Evgeni KRASNOPOLSKI ISR 78.36 40.12 42.24 5.36 5.11 5.21 5.46 5.25 4.00 #2

FPl. Name Nation Points SP FS 1 Tatiana VOLOSOZHAR / Maxim TRANKOV RUS 195.07 1 1 2 Qing PANG / Jian TONG CHN 185.16 2 2 3 Caydee DENNEY / John COUGHLIN USA 178.22 3 3 4 Vanessa JAMES / Morgan CIPRES FRA 167.66 4 4 5 Marissa CASTELLI / Simon SHNAPIR USA 164.19 5 5 6 Gretchen DONLAN / Andrew SPEROFF USA 131.26 7 6 7 Danielle MONTALBANO / Evgeni KRASNOPOLSKI ISR 119.02 6 7

Volosozhar/Trankov's routine to “Violin Muse” was highlighted by a triple twist, a triple Salchow-double toeloop, a triple toe, a throw triple loop and two difficult lifts. The World silver medalists struggled with their reverse lasso lift and she fell on the throw triple Salchow. The Russians' free was dedicated to Japan and to all the people hitted by the tsunami, but I think last year black swan suited them better.

Pang/Tong skated a solid program to “Variations on a Original Theme Enigma” by Edward Elgar, completing a double Axel-double Axel sequence, a triple twist, two triple throws and three level-four lifts. They tried a new position for the death spiral, but their forward outside death spiral received no level.

Denney/Coughlin reeled off a triple twist, throw triple loop and flip, but underrotated the double Axel-double Axel sequence in their program to “Phantom of the Opera”. Very impressive free program, anyway.

DANCE

Pl.   Name Nation TSS = TES + PCS + SS TR PE CC IT Ded. - StN. 1 Meryl DAVIS / Charlie WHITE USA 104.89 48.16 56.73 9.38 9.33 9.50 9.54 9.63 0.00 #7 2 Ekaterina BOBROVA / Dmitri SOLOVIEV RUS 97.04 47.71 49.33 8.17 7.92 8.46 8.38 8.42 0.00 #5 3 Kaitlyn WEAVER / Andrew POJE CAN 91.53 41.59 49.94 8.33 8.04 8.42 8.50 8.54 0.00 #6 4 Lynn KRIENGKRAIRUT / Logan GIULIETTI-SCHMITT USA 87.52 44.17 43.35 7.21 7.17 7.29 7.25 7.25 0.00 #4 5 Nelli ZHIGANSHINA / Alexander GAZSI GER 80.27 38.20 42.07 6.79 6.71 7.17 7.25 7.42 0.00 #3 6 Lorenza ALESSANDRINI / Simone VATURI ITA 75.38 37.61 38.77 6.29 6.33 6.58 6.58 6.67 1.00 #2 7 Anastasia CANNUSCIO / Colin MCMANUS USA 74.39 38.93 36.46 6.13 5.88 6.17 6.17 6.17 1.00 #1

FPl. Name Nation Points SD FD 1 Meryl DAVIS / Charlie WHITE USA 176.28 1 1 2 Ekaterina BOBROVA / Dmitri SOLOVIEV RUS 159.95 3 2 3 Kaitlyn WEAVER / Andrew POJE CAN 157.32 2 3 4 Lynn KRIENGKRAIRUT / Logan GIULIETTI-SCHMITT USA 141.41 4 4 5 Nelli ZHIGANSHINA / Alexander GAZSI GER 132.57 5 5 6 Lorenza ALESSANDRINI / Simone VATURI ITA 125.74 6 6 7 Anastasia CANNUSCIO / Colin MCMANUS USA 122.37 7 7

Meryl Davis/Charlie White danced to victory to “Notre Dame de Paris”. They picked up a level four for five elements, but the circular step sequence garnered a level two. They showed fast-paced footwork and innovative lifts.

Bobrova/Soloviev put out a strong performance to “Man with a Harmonica” and “Tosca” as well. The Russian Champions earned a level four for six elements and a level three for the two step sequences. “We are very pleased that in such a high level competition with such strong rivals we were able to control our nerves and finish with a high placement. With each competition so far, we’ve been improving and we’re getting better each time. Today’s program, I think we can still improve a lot”, Soloviev noted.

Weaver/Poje portrayed a sculptor dancing with a come-to-life statue to “Humanity in Motion” by Nathan Lanier. They impressed with their lifts, but the footwork and the combination spin were graded a level two. “Andrew and I are disappointed with our free dance today to say the least. Several of the minor mistakes ended up adding up in the end and we had a low technical score. Luckily, those are the easy things to fix. We are no strangers to going home and reworking little things to make sure we make the most of our technical score”, Weaver told the press.

LADIES

Pl.   Name Nation TSS = TES + PCS + SS TR PE CH IN Ded. - StN. 1 Ashley WAGNER USA 127.76 63.83 63.93 8.08 7.67 8.04 8.13 8.04 0.00 #10 2 Christina GAO USA 117.62 60.64 56.98 7.25 6.79 7.29 7.25 7.04 0.00 #8 3 Adelina SOTNIKOVA RUS 110.03 51.36 59.67 7.67 7.08 7.33 7.58 7.63 1.00 #9 4 Haruka IMAI JPN 107.82 56.82 52.00 6.63 6.21 6.54 6.58 6.54 1.00 #4 5 Alena LEONOVA RUS 106.77 53.23 53.54 6.88 6.25 6.79 6.83 6.71 0.00 #2 6 Valentina MARCHEI ITA 104.78 50.46 54.32 6.67 6.42 6.79 7.04 7.04 0.00 #6 7 Mae Berenice MEITE FRA 101.54 52.81 49.73 6.25 5.83 6.29 6.38 6.33 1.00 #7 8 Viktoria HELGESSON SWE 94.56 43.15 52.41 6.67 6.21 6.58 6.71 6.58 1.00 #5 9 Rachael FLATT USA 92.37 47.44 44.93 5.83 5.25 5.58 5.79 5.63 0.00 #1 10 Sarah HECKEN GER 85.98 41.57 45.41 5.88 5.33 5.67 5.75 5.75 1.00 #3

FPl. Name Nation Points SP FS 1 Ashley WAGNER USA 188.37 1 1 2 Christina GAO USA 174.25 3 2 3 Adelina SOTNIKOVA RUS 168.96 2 3 4 Valentina MARCHEI ITA 158.79 5 6 5 Haruka IMAI JPN 157.72 7 4 6 Mae Berenice MEITE FRA 155.95 4 7 7 Alena LEONOVA RUS 153.49 9 5 8 Viktoria HELGESSON SWE 144.85 6 8 9 Rachael FLATT USA 136.09 10 9 10 Sarah HECKEN GER 134.09 8 10

Performing to “Samson and Delilah”, Wagner produced six triple jumps and a level-four layback spin. She took home her first gold medal on the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating.”Today went exactly as planned. I really fought for some of those jumps, but I was pleased with what I put out. The quality of the program overall has improved since Japan Open”, Wagner said. “After the short program, I definitely thought that it was plausible to win the whole event. It was a good and bad thing because I started to worry about it. I was happy that I was able to go out there and keep my nerves under control and stay focused on what I wanted to accomplish. For my first Grand Prix gold medal , it’s a good day for me”, she added.

Gao turned in a solid Tango routine, landing six triples and winning her first medal on the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating.

Sotnikova opened her program to “At Last” and “Burlesque” with a triple Lutz-triple toe combination and a triple flip, but later missed her second triple flip and did one combination too many. “I’m very pleased that I did the triple-triple combination. I really wanted to do that. I’m completely unhappy about missing that second triple flip and about doing an extra combination”, the 16-year-old noted.

The ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating series continues next week with Skate Canada International in Windsor, Ontario (CAN).

Source: ISU

Read More