As usual, I’m going to post more details and thoughts on the GP Final in a couple of days… but if you’re looking for what the Television Without Pity folks call a recaplet, I’m your girl!
The best headline, as far as I’m concerned, is that Alissa Czisny won the Ladies GP title. She freakin’ WON! And not so much on the errors of others (Miki Ando’s notwithstanding) as on the strength of not one, but TWO relatively clean programs! No, I didn’t pick her to win, or even medal. But I’m so glad to be wrong on that. (I kind of wish I was wrong on my other two podium guesses— based on their performances this weekend, Carolina Kostner over Akiko Suzuki is a crime. But I digress…)
As for the men… was it the pre-event body slam with Takahiko Kozuka that kept Daisuke Takahashi from skating his best? (I'd re-post a link to that, but they appear to have cleared it from You Tube...)Or even a reasonable facsimile of his best? As he slid off the podium, Patrick Chan finally rose a lot closer to all the potential we hear about and skated off with the title. Nobunari Oda once again proved his strength is the short program, but he still managed his third consecutive silver medal this season. The aforementioned Kozuka wasn’t perfect, but mighty close! Bronze for him.
The pairs showdown wasn’t nearly as close as I’d hoped it would be. Pang/Tong were better than their previous GP efforts this season, but nonetheless looked slow and kind of fragile compared to Savchenko/Szolkowy. Gold and silver went accordingly; bronze went to the young whippersnappers of the pack (that would be Sui/Han of China).
Over in ice dance—you might have noticed that all 6 bloggers on that table I posted last time had the exact same predictions with regards to this discipline. As luck would have it, all 6 of us got that one right… Davis/White won gold, Pechalat/Bourzat won silver, and Crone/Poirier won bronze.
AND... I think I promised that I'd include the Junior GP results too? Here you go:
JUNIOR GP MEDALISTS
Ladies—
GOLD Adelina Sotnikova, RUS
SILVER Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, RUS
BRONZE Li Zijun, CHI (defeating Japan’s Risa Shoji in a tiebreaker)
U.S. finishes: Christina Gao—6th, Yasmin Siraj—7th, Kristiene Gong—8th (there are 8 competitors in the Junior GP Finals)
Men—
GOLD Richard Dornbush, USA
SILVER Yan Han, CHI
BRONZE Andrei Rogozine, CAN
U.S. finishes: Max Aaron—4th, Keegan Messing—5th, Joshua Farris—6th
Pairs—
GOLD Takahashi/Tran, JPN
SILVER Stolbova/Klimov, RUS
BRONZE Yu/Jin, CHI
U.S. finishes: Ashley Cain/Joshua Reagan—5th
Dance—
GOLD Monko/Khaliavin, RUS
SILVER Sinitsina/Zhiganshin, RUS
BRONZE Stepanova/Bukin, RUS
U.S. finishes: Charlotte Lichtman/Dean Copely, 5th
A Skating with the Stars update will come tomorrow, and more about the GPF will follow that. Until then, I’ve gotta make Czisny’s free skate the Clip of the Day. I just never get tired of this program… especially when it’s skated like that.
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