Figure skatingCup of Russia full of surprises

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Russian pair Yuko Kavaguti, right, and Alexander Smirnov won gold in Moscow with a delightfully artistic free skate. (Yuri Kadobnov/Getty Images)

The fifth of six ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating events took place this weekend in Moscow, where more berths were secured for the Grand Prix Final in Beijing in December.

The Cup of Russia event was full of surprises. In the ice dance, by the time the skaters took the ice for the free dance, the field had shrunk from eight teams to five as a result of injury withdrawals. Gone were event and crowd favourites and defending world bronze medallists Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali, along with Canadians Alexandra Paul and Mitchell Islam and Americans Madison and Keiffer Hubbell.

The eventual winners, Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Soloviev of Russia, were also among the favourites coming into the event and delivered by winning both the short and free dance segments. They were joined on the podium by Hungary's Nora Hoffmann and Maxim Zavozin, whose silver was their first Grand Prix medal, and Russia's Elena Ilinykh and Nikita Katsapalov. The junior world champions delivered the second-best free dance of the night to move from sixth place after the short dance to take the bronze.

Ando rebounds to win ladies'

The ladies' competition was a bit of a roller-coaster ride. To start with, 2007 world champion Miki Ando of Japan delivered a sub-par performance in the short program with a fifth-place finish, while teammate Akiko Suzuki rose to the occasion to take the lead. When the short was all said and done, for my money the most energetic performance of the night came from American Ashley Wagner, whose season-best score put her in third place and on track to eventually secure the bronze.

Fellow American Agnes Zawadzki, the 2010 junior world silver medallist, was thought to be a contender in Russia. She placed an impressive second in the short, but a disappointing eighth in the free landed her just off the podium in fourth overall. Ando, on the other hand, was faster and more solid in her free and won that segment of the competition by enough of a margin to take the title, dropping Suzuki to second overall.

Russian pair delights with artistry

In the pairs, two-time and defending world bronze medallists and defending European champions Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov of Russia went unchallenged by the rest of the field. This team is only competing once this Grand Prix season, as they are both recovering from injuries and surgery and cannot qualify for the Grand Prix Final. But what they did in Moscow was put the rest of the world pairs field on notice.

Waiting to see if we would be hit with an artistic sledgehammer, it was a treat to see the Russians' almost poetic use of Clair de Lune in their free program, making them more of a threat than they have been as just a strong technical team with big tricks. Stay tuned for an exciting second half of the pairs season!

Narumi Takahashi and Mervin Tran of Japan, the world junior silver medallists, added to their bronze medal from the NHK Trophy event by hanging on to finish second in Moscow despite a shaky third-place free program. They were joined on the podium by Americans Amanda Evora and Mark Ladwig, whose second-place free program moved them up from fourth after the short to take the bronze.

Chan falls to 2nd

It seems as if the men are taking their time getting their best programs out in competition this season, and the Cup of Russia was no exception. Patrick Chan, the two-time and defending world silver medallist, finished second. The Canadian won the short program, but faltered in the free in a beautifully choreographed program interrupted by errors. His most glaring miscue was a repeat of Nobunari Oda's from last week, where Chan miscalculated on his jump elements and ended up tossing in one too many jump combinations, which earned him no points.

Taking his first Grand Prix title after a third-place finish in the short was the 2008 European champion, Tomas Verner of the Czech Republic, whose commanding free program earned him season's-best marks and the gold medal. American champion Jeremy Abbott fell off the pace in the free, finishing fourth in that segment to drop from second to third place overall.

Qualifying for the Grand Prix Final from this event were:

• Men's: Chan and Verner
• Ladies': Ando and Suzuki
• Ice dance: Bobrova-Soloviev

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