Trophee Bompard saw Rochette take Free Skating Gold
ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating: Trophee Bompard Day Two
Pairs, Free Skating
Aliona Savchenko/Robin Szolkowy of Germany skated to the gold in what was a dramatic Pairs event. Russia’s Maria Mukhortova/Maxim Trankov captured the silver medal and Canadians Meagan Duhamel/ Craig Buntin earned the bronze.
Overnight leaders Savchenko/Szolkowy skated last and opened their lyrical routine to “Schindler’s List” and “Adagio” with a side by side triple toeloop-triple toeloop sequence followed by a triple twist and an excellent triple Salchow. Their difficult lifts were graded a level four as was their pair combination spin while the side by side spin, death spiral and circular footwork was a level three. However, the World Champions struggled with their throws today. Savchenko fell on the throw triple flip and the throw Salchow turned into a single.
Ladies, Free Skating
Joannie Rochette of Canada won the Ladies event ahead of Japan Mao Asada and Caroline Zhang (USA). Rochette delivered a solid performance of her program to “Concierto de Aranjuez”, completing a triple Lutzdouble toe-double loop combination, a triple flip, triple Lutz, triple toe-triple Salchow sequence and another triple Salchow at the end of the program.
The Germans picked up a new season-best score of 120.32 points (60.20 element score/61.12 program component score) and accumulated a total of 188.50 points to win their second Grand Prix event of the season. “A couple of people came to us and told us that it wasn’t so bad as we felt it was. Indeed, it wasn’t so bad, otherwise we wouldn’t have had more points than at Skate America. But again we missed the throw Salchow and we made a mistake on the throw flip. We did the other elements, though.
There is a lot of room left for improvement and luckily this isn’t yet the end of the season”, Szolkowy commented.
Skating to “The Lady and the Hooligan” by Dmitri Shostakovitch, Mukhortova/Trankov landed a triple twist, a side by side triple toe-double toe combination, a throw triple Salchow and strong lifts, but she went down on the triple Salchow attempt and touched down with both hands on the throw triple loop. The Russians got a level four for their spins and lifts and a level three for the footwork and deathspiral and scored 106.03 points (53.03/54.00). They were ranked third in the Free Skating but remained in second place overall at 170.87 points.
