.jpg)
Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy (GER) were
refreshed in their win at Skate Canada.
Photo: AP/The Canadian Press/Paul Chiasson
Mirroring Joannie Rochette’s performances that got back on track with her win in the ladies’ event, World champions Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy had a little redemption of their own, skating a new free skate to win the gold at Skate Canada. They won by 21 points in a competitive field that featured a number of solid free skates.
Savchenko and Szolkowy stepped it up after their disastrous free skate in Paris to set a new season-leading free skate score en route to a win and a spot in the Grand Prix Final. After skating poorly at Trophee Eric Bompard in the free skate, they decided to start from scratch and come up with a new free skate for a fresh start. The new program seemed to do wonders for them, as they skated their first strong free skate of the season. Their only error was in their side-by-side double axels, which both of them singled. Nevertheless, their total score of 206.71 set a new world record, just edging Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao’s record set five years ago.
Russian silver medalists Maria Mukhortova and Maxim Trankov continued their string of consistent and solid performances this season with a clean free skate. Their only trouble came with a costume malfunction, when the strap on Trankov’s pants broke. The malfunction gave them a mandatory two-point deduction for an interruption in the program, but they continued and finished strongly to capture the silver and also qualify for the Final.
Canadian champions Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison had troubles in the side-by-side jumps, much like they had in their short program. Those mistakes, combined with an invalidated pairs spin at the end of the program, prevented them from getting enough points to win the tiebreak between them and Dan Zhang and Hao Zhang for the final spot in the Grand Prix Final.
American silver medalists Caydee Denney and Jeremy Barrett were strong in the free skate to finish in fifth. The second American pair, Caitlin Yankowskas and John Coughlin, finished in seventh place.
PAIRS (final standings)
1. Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy GER – 206.71
2. Maria Mukhortova and Maxim Trankov RUS – 185.71
3. Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison CAN – 166.93
4. Anabelle Langlois and Cody Hay CAN – 159.95
5. Caydee Denney and Jeremy Barrett USA – 157.09
6. Kirsten Moore-Towers and Dylan Moscovitch CAN – 146.91
7. Caitlin Yankowskas and John Coughlin USA – 143.61
8. Ksenia Ozerova and Alexander Enbert RUS – 113.36
Comments