Cup of China - Day 2

The Grand Prix season is the place for skaters to take chances and make mistakes early in the season before the stakes get too high. Good thing too! There were plenty of splats from one and all at Cup of China.

However, aside from Mirai, it was the leaders from day 1 who held out for gold.

Dance

Italians Faiella & Scali would have been the textbook favourites heading to Cup of China as the reigning world bronze medallists, however they came undone in their flamenco free dance as they both fell on the way out of a lift. They held out for a medal but finished behind the Russians Bobrova & Soloviev. It was the crowd-pleasing French couple Pechalat & Bourzat who rose to the occasion and set personal bests in the free dance and overall with a Charlie Chaplin medley.  The Pair will next compete on home turf at Trophee Eric Bompard in 3 weeks.

Ladies

The tally for falls amongst the ladies in the free skate came to 10 falls between the 10 skaters. Only  Gold Medallist Miki Ando skated truely clean with all the others having falls or downgraded jumps. Korea's Min-Jeong Kwak was totally overwhelmed by the occasion and added 3 falls in the free skate to her 2 from the short programme. It's a real shame as she was showing great progress under Brian Orser's tutelage but was forced to leave and return to Korea in the wake of the Orser-Kim breakup. Akiko Suzuki helf out for silver but with a spattering of popped jumps and downgrades. Alena Leonova of Russia held out for bronze and by a margin of 2 points, Mirai came away empty handed.

Mens

Takahiko Kozuka won gold by a country mile with a clean free skate including a quad toe and 2 triple axels. He was joined in the quad club by consistent American, Brandon Mroz. Frenchman Brian Joubert had a disappointing outing with an underrotation call on his quad and level 1s on 3 of his spins. He ended outside the medals in 4th behind Tomas Verner. Kozuka will also try to wrap up a place in the final at Trophee Eric Bompard.

Pairs

Pang & Tong wrapped up gold and a trip to the Grand Prix final despite errors on their side by side jumps. Their young teammates Sui & Han bravely went for a throw quad salchow which they had successfully landed earlier this season in the junior circuit. On this attempt the landing was two footed but they did enough to hold on for silver. The pair have already qualified for the junior grand prix final and are due to compete next week at Skate America - is it possible to skate at the Junior and Senior finals in the same year? American pair Yankowskas and Coughlin held on for Bronze. With a 4th place finish at NHK, they are unlikely to make the final but have built good momentum for the rest of the season.