Figure skatingFalls highlight Cup of Russia

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With a relatively small field of eight teams in the pairs event, six had deductions of one or two points resulting from falls, including the leaders from China, Dan Zhang and Hao Zhang.

To give you an idea of just how poor the quality of the short programs in pairs was, The Chinese competitors have a comfortable lead of 8.30 heading into the free skate despite their mistakes.

Russia’s Yuko Kawaguchi and Alexander Smirnov also faltered, but were able to stay ahead of Ukraine’s Tatiana Volosozhar and Stanislav Morozov for second by a margin of .42.

The ladies seemed to succumb to the same problems of errors and falls as everyone else, with the exception of the leader from Japan, Fumie Suguri.

Plagued occasionally with nerves, it was wonderful to see Suguri skate a clean short program with confidence and determination and end up ahead of Italy’s Carolina Kostner. Also in the mix heading into the free is the 2008 world junior champion, American Rachael Flatt, who sits in third.

In the event of the day, France’s Brian Joubert leads the men after the short program with a 12.90 advantage over next closest competitor, Tomas Verner of the Czech Republic.

Not only did Joubert land a quad toe/triple toe combination on his way to the highest technical marks of the day, his overall short program score of 86.10 exceeds his former personal best by 2.46 points.

It was like watching the old Joubert skate, the one with the great tricks, speed and charisma. American 2008 junior world champion, Adam Rippon stands third, just .02 ahead of France’s Alban Preaubert.

As always, the ice dance competitors provided predictable results in Moscow.

The 2008 European champions from Russia, Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin, skated into the lead after the compulsory dance, ahead of fellow countrymen Jana Khokhlova and Sergei Novitski.

The American team of Meryl Davis and Charlie White are in third.

Given the home ice advantage among other factors, it would be surprising if the top three teams didn’t end up as the podium order at the conclusion of the original dance and free dance segments taking place Saturday and Sunday.

Watch live coverage of the free programs from Cup of Russia on CBCSports.ca beginning Saturday at 6:30 a.m. ET.

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