American duo waltz home with Grand Prix win

Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue wanted to skate without fear on the weekend. The American ice dancers spent the last five weeks completely revamping their rhythm dance and short program. The risk paid off as the pair won gold at the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final Saturday, posting a combined score of 205.35. Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov of Russia took silver, tallying 201.37 points. Italians Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri came in third with a score of 198.65. Hubbell said there were plenty of “little bobbles” throughout the Americans’ free skate Saturday, but they were proud of their work. Now they’ll spend time finessing details and cleaning up both programs before the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Detroit in January and the world championships in Japan in March. Meanwhile, Vanessa James and Morgan Cipres of France came from behind to take the gold in the pairs event with a breathtaking free skate Saturday. Cheng Peng and Yang Jin of China took silver with 216.90 points, while Russians Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov came in third with a score of 214.20. Cipres and James — who was born in Scarborough, Ont. — sat in fourth place after Friday’s short program, but posted a score of 148.37 in the free skate for a combined 219.88 points. Earlier Saturday, Japanese teenager Rika Kihira took first place in the women’s event, capping a stunning freshman outing on the senior circuit. Kihira edged out reigning Olympic champion Alina Zagitova of Russia for the win. Fellow Russian Elizaveta Tuktamysheva took third with a score of 215.32. On Friday, American Nathan Chen took gold in the men’s event, while Canada’s Keegan Messing was fifth. Stephen Gogolev, 13, of Toronto won the junior men’s event.