Figure skatingCup of Russia presented mixed bag

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The 2007 world champion from France, Brian Joubert, ended up with the gold on the strength of a personal best showing in the short program before beating Czech Republic skater Tomas Verner.

Joubert’s fourth-place free program left a lot to be desired in terms of skating and his choreography showed a real weakness in the transition between elements, along with a disconnect to his music.

However, the victory in Moscow gives Joubert enough points make it to the Grand Prix Final. Verner easily won the long program but is still not assured of a place among the top six men who will travel to Korea.

The ladies all struggled in the free skate Italy’s Carolina Kostner‘s was able to keep it together and earned the gold.
In an interesting bit of strategy, Kostner didn’t perform her Swan Lake inspired program, which we saw at Skate Canada.

Instead, Kostner selected Dumsky Trio program from last season.

The 15 points she earned from this win has secured her entry into the Grand Prix Final.

Japan’s Fumie Suguri battled through nerves and spills to drop from first in the short program to third overall.
In only her second senior Grand Prix event, reigning 2008 world junior champion Rachael Flatt of the U.S., took the silver with a very demanding free-program performance.

The ice dance competition went as expected with the Russians taking the top two spots, while the American team of Meryl Davis and Charlie White earning the bronze.

Russians Jana Khokhlova and Sergei Novitski overtook teammates Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin for the gold but both teams still qualify for the Grand Prix Final.

Had the results been reversed, Khokhlova and Novitski would have been sitting in sixth place in standings, and with one more Grand Prix event still to come, a spot in the final would not have been assured.

The pairs event was interesting only in the fact that the winners from China, Dan Zhang and Halo Zhang, have qualified for the Grand Prix Final with a perfect score of 30 points during their last two wins.

Their performance was not one of their best, but expect this team to grow and improve.

Russians Yuko Kawaguchi and Alexander Smirnov have also qualified for the Grand Prix final. The duo finished earned a silver medal on home ice, and were only memorable for including a rare and supremely difficult throw quad Salchow. The jump helped the Russian win the free skate.

The bronze medal went the Ukrainian team of Tatiana Volosozhar and Stanislav Morozov, who now have 24 points.

The pair will have to wait for next week’s results at the NHK even in Tokyo to see if they will be heading to Korea.

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