F O U R CONT I NENTS C HA MPI ON S H IPS
have gotten me here. I hope to only improve and continue on this track of improvement.” Ninth after the short program, Gracie
Gold rebounded with a solid free skate to place fifth with 178.39 points. Te two-time and reigning U.S. champion fought through a rough first segment, which included two falls, to place third in the free skate with 121.13 points.
2015 U.S. bronze medalist Karen Chen placed 12th with 161.52 points. Chen, who was supported in the stands by several family members and friends who live in the area, re- placed U.S. silver medalist Polina Edmunds at the event on Feb. 12. Japanese ladies occupied the remaining podium spots with Satoko Miyahara earning gold with 214.91 points and Rika Hongo tak- ing bronze with 181.78.
Alexa Scimeca and Chris Knierim earned the highest American finish in the pairs event, winning another silver medal for Team USA with a personal-best 207.96 points. Te reign- ing U.S. silver medalists turned in the best free skate of their career, earning a segment score of 140.35, which tops their previous personal-best by more than 12 points, en route to their highest-career finish at the Four Continents Championships. “To finally get that done feels great,”
Knierim said. “It’s been so long and this is such a great boost for us going into Worlds. We showed what we can achieve. Even today there were some little mistakes, but we weren’t thinking about a score that high, even with a clean program. It’s just amazing.”
Mirai Nagasu continued her comeback campaign with a silver-medal finish. Alexa Scimeca and Chris Knierim delivered their best score of the season in Tapei City. Tarah Kayne and Danny O’Shea were
in seventh place after the short program, but turned in a solid free skate to place fourth with 182.02 points. Te reigning U.S. pairs cham- pions skated a clean program with Kayne push- ing through illness to earn a segment score of 122.30. U.S. bronze medalists Marissa Castel- li and Mervin Tran finished their Four Conti- nents debut in sixth place with 175.08 points. Te gold medal went to China’s Wenjing
Sui and Cong Han, who chalked up 221.91 points, while the bronze went to their team- mates Xiaoyu Yu and Yang Jin, who tallied a score of 187.33. In a difficult men’s field, Team USA
earned seventh-, eighth- and 14th-place fin- ishes by Max Aaron (220.94), Grant Hoch- stein (216.34) and Ross Miner (191.12), re- spectively.
2014 Olympic silver medalist Pat- rick Chan of Canada took top honors with 290.21 points, followed by China’s Boyang Jin, who carded a score of 289.83 and be- came the first skater to complete four qua- druple jumps in a free skate in international competition and the first skater to land three different kinds of quads (Lutz, Salchow and toe loop) in one program at the event. Jin’s compatriot, Han Yan, won bronze with 271.55 points.
SKATING 11
SAM YEH/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
ON MAN KEVIN LEE/ISU VIA GETTY IMAGES
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60