POSTED: Sunday November 30th 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating: NHK Trophy, Day Three

The NHK Trophy celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.

The NHK Trophy in Tokyo, Japan concluded Sunday with the Men’s Free Skating and the Exhibition Gala. The NHK Trophy was the sixth and last event in the series and five skaters/couples qualified here for the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final in December in Goyang City, Korea. The NHK Trophy celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. Like on the previous days, the Yoyogi Stadium was filled to capacity with more than 8,500 spectators.

 

Men, Free Skating

Japan’s Nobunari Oda celebrated a major comeback by claiming the gold medal in the Men’s event. Johnny Weir (USA) earned the silver medal and Yannick Ponsero of France took the bronze.

 

Oda had to overcome a shaky start into his routine to “Warsaw Concerto” by Richard Addinsell when he stumbled on his opening quadruple toeloop and stepped out of the triple Axel. The 2006 Four Continents Champion recovered to nail a triple Salchow-triple toeloop, a triple Axel, Lutz and loop, but he fell on the back end of his triple flip-triple toe-double loop combination. The 21-year-old was awarded a level four for the change foot upright and the flying sit spin, but the combination spin was a level two. Oda picked up 154.55 points (78.15 element score/77.40 program component score) and racked up a total of 236.18 points to win. It was a major comeback for the Japanese skater who had sat out the past season. “I am delighted to have won. There was one thing I wanted to challenge myself with, and that was to do a clean quad. I didn’t do it today, but I hope to be able to do it in my next competition”, he said.

Performing to “Notre Dame de Paris”, Weir pulled off a triple Axel-double toe, another triple Axel, triple Salchow, loop and triple Lutz-triple toe-double toe combination as well as two-level four spins and level-three steps. Weir, who has been suffering from a bad cold since his arrival in Japan, ran out of steam towards the end, doubled the second Lutz and popped the flip into a single. The World bronze medalist scored 146.27 points (69.97/76.30), which was a new seasons-best for him, and accumulated 224.42 points overall. “I am very happy with the way today went. I’ve been so sick all week and I was so nervous to go on the ice and not know if I would able to breathe from the beginning to the end of the program, but I did somehow find the strength to go through this and I’m very happy that I ended up on the podium. I’m disappointed of course with the mistakes I made at the end of the program”, Weir commented. He was the only of the three medalists to qualify for the Grand Prix Final and goes with 26 points from his two second places to Korea.

 

Ponsero opened his dynamic program to a medley of Swing music with a beautiful quadruple toeloop followed by a triple Axel. He also produced a triple Lutz, a triple Salchow-double toe-double toe combination and got a level four for his combination and flying sit spin as well as level three for the footwork. The Frenchman only doubled the loop and touched down on the second jump in his triple toe-triple Salchow sequence. Ponsero scored 142.85 points (70.65/72.20) and improved his pervious personal best by

11.93 points. The 22-year-old earned his first medal on the senior Grand Prix with a total of 217.24 points.

“I am very happy, because this is my first medal on the Grand Prix. I want to continue like this and I want to become better and better”, Ponsero told the press. “I did a lot of intensive preparation to achieve this result”, he revealed. “I hired a mental coach and a physical preparation coach and worked with my team. This result shows that the work has paid off.”

 

Kevin Reynolds (CAN) finished fourth at 199.74 points. He was the only skater to land to quads – a quad Salchow and toeloop - but a triple Axel, loop and toeloop were downgraded. Takahito Mura (JPN) came in fifth. He nailed seven triples (198.07 points). Stephen Carriere (USA) slipped from fifth to sixth after singling both planned triple Axels (192.30 points).

 

For full results, please refer to www.isu.org. The ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating 2008/2009 will conclude with the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final in Goyang City, December 10 to 14.

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Keywords · ISU · ice skating · NHK Trophy

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Name: Devra Pitt-getaz
Organization: ISU
Email:
Phone: +41 21 612 66 66
URL: http://www.isu.org/

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