POSTED: Sunday November 14th 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating 2010/2011: Skate America Day Two

Carolina Kostner (ITA) leads after Ladies' Short

Italy's Carolina Kostner took the lead in the Ladies Short Program ahead of Kanako Murakami of Japan and Joshi Helgesson of Sweden.
Kostner's “Galicia Flamenco” included a triple toe-double toe combination, a double Axel, triple loop and a level-four circular footwork. The three-time European Champion posted a new seasons best of 60.28 points. “After my clean skate in Japan (at NHK Trophy) I was very happy, because it was my first competition. Today I really wanted to do my triple-triple combination. I skated clean, but I'm not a 100 percent satisfied with my performance”, the Italian said.
Murakami put out a lively program to “Jumpin' Jack” and produced a triple toe-triple toe combination as well as three level-four spins, but she singled the Axel and the triple flip was underrotated. The reigning World Junior Champion scored 54.75 points. “I'm satisfied with my performance, except for the Axel. I couldn't make it”, Murakami told the press. “After the NHK Trophy, I practiced a lot since I didn't do all my jumps there.”
Helgesson turned in a clean program to “Sarabande” that was highlighted by triple Lutz-double toeloop combination, a triple toe and a double Axel. The Swede earned 51.17 points, a new seasons best. “This was best short program I've done this season. My jumps and spins felt really good and my only mistake was that I had a level three on the combination spin. Now I'm excited about the free skating”, she commented.
Rachael Flatt (USA) came fourth after making an error on her combination (51.02 points) and Caroline Zhang (USA) finished fifth.

Meryl Davis/Charlie White (USA) win Short Dance

Meryl Davis/Charlie White (USA) won the Short Dance while Canadians Vanessa Crone/Paul Poirier and Kaitlyn Weaver/Andrew Poje are standing in second and third, separated by just over a point.
Davis/White had to overcome a shaky start into their program set to “La Boheme” and “La Traviata” as he stepped out of a twizzle, but the side by side footwork, the Golden Waltz sequences and the rotational lift were smooth. The Olympic and World silver medalists scored 63.62 points. “We think it (the short dance) is much improved since NHK and we're really excited about the direction it's taking. Just a couple of flukey things here and there, but nothing to be concerned about”, commented Davis. “The track was a little off on the first one (twizzle), and when you start thinking about other things doing the twizzles sometimes that's when it goes wrong. I was just inside of her circle a bit and usually I'm on the other side of her, so I was thinking I need to get over there and in the process I caught an edge”, White elaborated.
Crone/Poirier's Waltz to “Fallin'” by Alicia Keys featured a level-four rotational lift and level-three footwork and twizzles. The Skate Canada Champions collected 60.41 points. “Vanessa and I are definitely very pleased with our performance today. There was a little bit of pressure on ourselves after a really good skate at Skate Canada we wanted to prove to ourselves that we could do another solid short dance again in competition. I think we achieved that goal. There were a few levels that weren't as high as two weeks ago, so when we get home, we'll definitely work on that”, explained Poirier.
Weaver/Poje turned in an elegant dance to “At Last” and “Cheek to Cheek” that was highlighted by a straight line lift (level four) and strong twizzles. They picked up a level four and three for the Golden Waltz sequences to post a new seasons best of 59.48 points. “We had a bit of a shaky warm up, but we came back strong and we wanted to attack the program. We've achieved a level four on the first sequence of the Golden (Waltz) which is an improvement since NHK (Trophy). It's definitely a step into the right direction so far in this season”, Weaver said.
Maia Shibutani/Alex Shibutani (USA) are ranked fourth at 56.46 points and Ekaterina Riazanova/Ilia Tkachenko (RUS) came fifth with 55.52 points.

Daisuke Takahashi (JPN) claims Men's gold

Japan's Daisuke Takahashi claimed the gold at Skate America on Saturday. Teammate Nobunari Oda completed a successful day for the Japanese men with his silver medal and Armin Mahbanoozadeh (USA) captured the bronze.
Takahashi nailed six clean triples including in his expressive Tango routine, but he fell on his second triple Axel and tripled his intended quad toe. The 24-year-old earned 148.95 points and totaled 227.07 to overtake Oda. “I couldn't skate so well today, but my presentation was better than at the NHK Trophy”, said the World Champion. “I wanted to do the quad toe, but it popped out on the landing. I've landed it twice in competition this season, but it is not consistent in practice”, he added.
Performing to Piano Concertos 1 and 2 by Edvard Grieg, Oda went down on his opening quad toe but recovered to complete six clean triples. However, he did a combination too many that didn't count. He had 146.81 points and slipped to second at 226.09 points overall. “I am very disappointed with my performance tonight, because I did a few mistakes. I was just thinking of doing another combination. I repeated this (kind of mistake) so many times that I can't say anything about a solution. But it won't happen again”, noted Oda.
Mahbanoozadeh delivered a strong performance to “Avatar” that included seven triples and difficult spions and footwork to score 143.56 points. With a total score of 211.17 the 19-year-old moved up from fourth to win his first Grand Prix medal. “I'm thrilled beyond words”,Mahbanoozadeh said. “I felt really confident going in today. The long program has been going well, I've been training it well and I let myself do what I do in practice. It went better than I could have hoped for”, he continued.
Adam Rippon dropped to fourth with 203.12 points and Daisuke Murakami (JPN) finished fifth (203.00 points). Takahashi has qualified for the Grand Prix Final with two wins and Oda most likely qualified with two silver medals.

Aliona Savchenko/Robin Szolkowy (GER) skate off with the Pairs gold

Aliona Savchenko/Robin Szolkowy of Germany, skated off with the Pairs gold at Skate America. Canada's Kirsten Moore-Towers/Dylan Moscovitch took the silver and the bronze medal went to Wenjing Sui/Cong Han of China.
Savchenko/Szolkowy entertained the crowd at the Rose Garden Arena with their “Pink Panther” program and produced three triple throws, level-four spins and lifts. The only glitch came when Szolkowy stepped out of the second jump in the triple toe-triple toe sequence. The two-time World Champions were awarded 133.71 points and racked up a total of 197.70 points. “Yesterday we were a little disappointed, but tonight we feel better. We are happy that we skated our first long program of the season the way we did. There are still a lot of points that we can get if we skate with all elements and if we skate clean, but now we know what to work on”, Szolkowy told the press.
Moore-Towers/Moscovitch turned in a dynamic performance to “Les Miserables” that was highlighted by triple twist, a throw triple loop and Salchow, but he doubled a toeloop and both stumbled on the triple Salchow. The Canadian team collected 113.84 points and remained in second place at 175.48 points. “This long wasn't our ideal performance. We worked through it. It wasn't exactly our easiest run-through, but our training came through and carried us to the end. We are thrilled to be where we are in our second season together”, Moscovitch explained. The team most likely will compete in the Grand Prix Final after winning to silver medals on the Grand Prix circuit.
Sui/Han delivered a “Charlie Chaplin” program and landed a throw triple flip and a double Axel-double Axel sequence, but she underrotated the triple toe and two-footed the quadruple throw Salchow. The World Junior Champions were awarded 112.54 points, a new seasons best, and took the bronze with 170.07 points. “We didn't do very well in the long program. We lost many points. We are learning from the German team”, Han said.
Caydee Denney/Jeremy Barrett (USA) slipped to fourth at 166.43 points and Ksenia Stolbova/Fedor Klimov were ranked fifth (159.49 points). For full results please refer to www.isu.org. Skate America concludes Sunday with the Free Dance, the Ladies Free Skating and the Exhibition Gala.

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Keywords · ISU · Skate America · figure skating

Name: Devra Pitt-getaz
Organization: International Skating Union (ISU)
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