2 0 1 4 SK ATE CANADA
Wagner carts home silver, leads U.S. medal haul
Two-time U.S. champion Ashley Wag- ner kicked off her Grand Prix Series season by claiming the silver medal at Skate Canada, Oct. 2–Nov. 2, in Kelowna, B.C., Canada. Wagner paced a strong showing by Team USA, which also secured bronze medals in the men’s race with Max Aaron and in ice dance with Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue. For her free skate to selections from Moulin
Rouge, Wagner landed four triple jumps, two dou- ble Axels and executed a trio of difficult spins. Te 23-year-old, who trains in California, earned 122.14 points for her free skate and 186.00 overall. She achieved the highest program compo- nents score of the segment. “Today was a great thing for me,” Wagner
said. “My second mark is pulling through for me, which makes me very happy. Technically I know that I have a little bit to work on, but I’m getting stronger and stronger.” Wagner has now won nine Grand Prix Series medals, including two at the Grand Prix Final. In her second-ever Grand Prix Series event,
Courtney Hicks, eighth after the short program, finished fourth with 174.51 points. Russia’s Anna Pogorilaya won the event with 191.81 points, with Japan’s Satoko Miyahara se- curing the bronze medal with 181.75 points. Aaron, fifth after the short program, rallied
2014 CUP OF C HINA Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani secured
their second Grand Prix Series silver medal, at the Lexus Cup of China, Nov. 7–9, in Shanghai. Te two-time and reigning U.S. bronze med-
alists and Olympians won the short dance and fin- ished second in the free dance en route to 157.36 points. “We were happy with our performance to-
day,” Alex said. “Te crowd energy was great. As far as how the program compares to Skate Amer- ica, I think we noticed of couple of things that could have been a little bit better. But I think we attacked the program in some different ways. Tere is always growth. We’ll have a look at the protocols, because I think we missed some levels.” Te Shibutanis, who also claimed the silver
medal at Skate America, collected a Level 4 for three elements while three other elements merited a Level 2 in their free dance. France’s Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume
Cizeron, the 2013 World Junior silver medalists, emerged with the gold medal, climbing up from third after the short dance. Tey scored 160.12 points. Italy’s Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte earned the bronze medal with 149.58 points. Richard Dornbush, the 2011 U.S. silver medalist, collected the bronze medal with 226.73 points.
30 DECEMBER 2014
with a strong free skate to music from Gladiator. He landed an opening quadruple Salchow-double toe loop combination, two triple Axels and four other triple jumps. He stepped out of a second quad Salchow and stumbled on a triple loop. His score of 231.77 trailed only gold medalist Taka- hito Mura of Japan with 255.81 points and silver medalist Javier Fernández of Spain with 244.87. “My event didn’t go perfectly, but I was com-
ing here to build up confidence,” Aaron, the 2013 U.S. champion who trains in Colorado Springs, said. “I struggled last year; coming into this season I really wanted to get back to where I was.” Stephen Carriere, who finished fourth with a
score of 231.67, landed an opening quad toe and triple Axel-triple toe combination to start his free skate. He placed fourth in both segments. Madeline Aaron and Max Settlage, who de-
buted fifth a week earlier at Hilton HHonors Skate America, finished fourth with 165.91 points. Te Colorado Springs-based pairs team recorded a score of 160.04 in Chicago. Canada’s Meagan Duhamel and Eric Rad-
ford earned the gold medal with 210.74 points. China’s Wenjing Sui and Cong Han collected the silver medal with 184.64 points, while Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov of Russia gar- nered the bronze medal with 175.45 points. Hubbell and Donohue repeated as bronze
Ashley Wagner awaits her free skate score in the kiss and cry with coach Rafael Arutunian. The silver marked Wagner’s ninth Grand Prix Series medal, and her second from Skate Canada.
medalists at Skate Canada. Te Michigan-based skaters have competed at Skate Canada three times in their short careers together. Te duo performed to Te Great Gatsby,
producing Level 4 lifts and twizzles. Donohue, though, fell at the end going into the team’s final pose. Te Four Continents champions finished with 148.23 points. Canada’s Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje won the gold medal with 171.10 points, while their teammates Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier earned the silver medal with 152.60 points. “We did our best today,” Hubbell said. “I was still shaky; things are just starting to come together for us, for both programs. We’re happy with being on the podium this early in the season.” Team USA’s Alexandra Aldridge and Daniel Eaton finished sixth with 137.37 points.
Shibutanis, Dornbush claim medals Dornbush’s free skate to “Yellow” and “Viva
la Vida” by Coldplay featured a quad toe loop, two triple Axels (one in combination with a triple toe) and two Level 4 spins, but he fell on at triple Lutz and doubled two jumps. “I’ve never experienced anything like this in a competition before,” Dornbush said of an on-ice accident moments earlier between two other com- petitors. “I was happy with how I was able to keep my cool and my concentration. My team leader, my coach were very helpful. I was able to focus on my job and going out there, doing what I had to do.”
Te bronze marks Dornbush’s first Grand
Prix Series medal. Russia’s Maxim Kovtun grabbed the gold medal with 243.34 points. Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu won the silver medal with 237.55 points despite colliding with fellow competi- tor Han Yan during the six-minute warm-up, which left him bloodied and bandaged. In the ladies event, U.S. silver med-
alist Polina Edmunds rallied from a sev- enth-place short program to finish sec- ond in the free skate and fourth overall
Maia Shibutani, Alex Shibutani and Richard Dornbush
with 161.27 points. Her teammates, Christina Gao and Ashley Cain, finished ninth and 10th with 125.04 points and 124.81 points, respective- ly.
Russia’s Elizaveta Tuktamysheva won the gold medal with 196.60 points, with short pro- gram leader Julia Lipnitskaia of Russia securing the silver medal with 173.57 points. Kanako Murakami of Japan took the bronze medal with 169.39 points. In pairs, Team USA’s Jessica Calalang and
Zack Sidhu finished seventh with 147.81 points. Cheng Peng and Hao Zhang led a Chinese po- dium sweep with 194.05 points. Xiaoyu Yu and Yang Jin were second with 173.33 points, while Xuehan Wang and Lei Wang earned bronze with 172.15 points.
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