Virtue, Moir sizzle in short dance
Canadian skaters flirt with world-record score to take lead at NHK Trophy event in Japan
Canadians Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir came within two points of their world-record score in the short dance Saturday to grab an early lead at the NHK Trophy figure skating competition, the fourth stop on the ISU Grand Prix circuit.
The duo gave a stirring performance of their routine to classic rock tunes tabulating 80.92 points. That was just shy of their 82.64 two weeks ago at Skate Canada in Regina.
“We made a step forward today in a lot of our elements,” said Virtue. “We were pleased with the attack we had and our technical proficiency.”
Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue of the U.S. are second at 76.31 and Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte of Italy third at 75.87. The free dance final is on Sunday.
The free skates in the other three events were held on Saturday.
In pairs, Julianne Seguin of Longueuil, Que., and Charlie Bilodeau of Trois-Pistoles, Que., continued to show improvement from a difficult season last winter moving from fifth to fourth with 194.37 points. Their clean program included two side-by-side triple jumps including one in combo and two triple throws.
World champions Sui Wenjing and Han Cong of China won the gold over two Russian pairs. Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov were second and Kristina Astakhova and Alexei Rogonov third.
In men’s competition, the Top 3 were Sergei Voronov of Russia first, Adam Rippon of the U.S. second and Alexei Bychenko of Israel third.
Keegan Messing of Sherwood Park, Alta., remained fifth after a clean Charlie Chaplin themed program. Messing landed two triple Axels including one in a triple combination and was just slightly low on his quad toe landing.
In women’s competition, Alaine Chartrand of Prescott, Ont., took 11th. World champion Evgenia Medvedeva of Russia won the gold.
Medvedeva, who was first after the short program, recovered from a shaky start in her free skate to Anna Karenina and won her second Grand Prix of the season with a total of 224.39 points.
Carolina Kostner of Italy was second with 212.24 points, followed by Russia’s Polina Tsurskaya with 210.19.
Medvedeva fell on her opening triple flip and two-footed the landing of a triple Lutz but nailed the rest of her jumps.
Combined with her win at the Cup of Russia last month, she booked her place at the Dec. 7-10 Grand Prix final in Nagoya, Japan.