World Champion Takahashi (JPN) leads Men after Short Program
Meryl Davis/Charlie White (USA) danced to the gold medal at NHK Trophy Saturday. Canada's Kaitlyn Weaver/Andrew Poje earned the silver medal and Maia Shibutani/Alex Shibutani (USA) moved up from fifth to capture the bronze medal in what was their senior Grand Prix debut. Davis/White put out a characteristic Tango program that was highlighted by difficult lifts and smooth footwork.
The World and Olympic silver medalists picked up 98.24 points for the Free Dance and overall accumulated 165.21 points. “First competition of the year, and we are very pleased with how we skated the Short Dance and the Free Dance. We're a little tired now, because we've put it all out there”, said White. “Looking at our levels and scores, there is a lot we need to work on”, Davis added. Weaver/Poje turned in a passionate routine to music from the “Moulin Rouge” soundtrack and impressed the crowd with spectacular lifts. The couple scored 82.88 points and had 141.57 points overall. It was their first silver medal at the Grand Prix after a bronze in 2009. “We went out there and delivered what we wanted to do and we started the season off in a way that we like it, with a medal”, Poje commented.
World Champions Qing Pang/Jian Tong (CHN) win Pairs
Reigning World Champions Qing Pang/Jian Tong of China skated to victory in the Pairs event Saturday at NHK Trophy. Russia's Vera Bazarova/Yuri Larionov claimed the silver medal and the bronze went to Narumi Takahashi/Mervin Tran of Japan. Overnight leaders Pang/Tong gave an emotional performance to “Liebestraum” by Franz Liszt and completed a big triple twist and triple throws, but Pang doubled the side by side toeloop and stumbled. The two-time World Champions earned 122.27 points and took the gold with 189.37 points.
”We made two major errors on the jumps today, but it was our first competition and we'll skate better in our second and third event”, commented Tong. Bazarova/Larionov made no error in their performance to “The Man in the Iron Mask” and produced a triple toe, throw triple flip and loop as well as difficult lifts to score 113.67 points for the Free Skating and 173.83 overall. “We are happy for today with what we did and we did our job that we came here to do. We made some minor mistakes and we'll work on that”, Bazarova told the post-event press conference.
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