The third Grand Prix event – Grand Prix de France – took place in Angers, France, Nov. 1-2, and there were some unexpected results.
Women
U.S. Champion Amber Glenn had an eight point lead after having a personal best short program that included a triple Axel, triple flip-triple toe combination and triple loop. Her score of 78.14 was also the highest short program score ever recorded by an American woman.
But in the free skate, Glenn did not have as stellar of a program as she did the day before. In her “I Will Find You the Return” free skate, Glenn opened with her triple Axel, but she stumbled out of it. She did recover to land three clean triples, but did fall on the triple flip and put a hand down on the triple loop. She earned a free skate score of 132.30, which was third in the first skate, and total score of 210.44. Her eight-point lead after the short program helped her hold on to the top spot and win her first ISU Grand Prix title.
“I still don’t believe it, [it is] crazy but very good,” Glenn said about winning.
“I was very nervous coming in today,” she added. “It was my first time being in first place at a major event in a short program and there was a lot happening, a lot of excitement. For me it was, ‘oh I did another program,’ so it was very odd and had a lot of emotions. I made a lot of small mistakes today that caused the fall on the flip and the hands down and that was due to both fatigue and just self-doubt.”
She will now hope to qualify for her first Grand Prix Final when she competes at Cup of China later in the month.
Skate America Champion Wakaba Higuchi, of Japan, qualified for the Grand Prix Final by winning the silver medal in Angers. In third after the short program, Higuchi produced six clean triples in her “Nature Boy” and “Running Up That Hill” free skate, which also included level four spins and level three step sequence. She won the free skate with a season’s best score of 139.10 and earned a total score of 206.08 to take the silver and be the first woman to qualify for the 2024 Grand Prix Final. This will be her first Grand Prix Final since 2017.
Japan’s Rion Sumiyoshi moved up from fifth to take the bronze. In her “Adiemus Songs of Sanctuary” free skate, she completed five triple jumps. She did an attempt a quadruple toe, but the jump was downgraded. She earned 134.47 in the free skate, which was second in the segment, and moved up to third with a total score of 201.35.
“Today, I really felt like I was able to see really around, look at the people. I felt quite good with my physical shape too,” Sumiyoshi told the press following her skate. “More than getting in the zone, I felt like everything was under control. This gave me a kind of good spirit to skate. As for the quad, I was not really feeling it, so I think I still did my best in a way and I accept the result. Overall, my skate today is what I was aiming to do.”
Sumiyoshi will compete at Cup of China as well.
The reigning World bronze medalist Chaeyeon Kim of Korea, who was second after the short, dropped to fourth overall with a score of 199.99. Like Glenn and Sumiyoshi, she will next compete at Cup of China. Team USA’s Sarah Everhardt, who was making her senior Grand Prix debut, finished in fifth place. She will compete in two weeks at Finlandia Trophy. Belgium’s Nina Pinzarrone, who finished just off the podium at Skate America, finished in sixth place in France.
Men
It was a tale of two segments in the men’s event. China’s Boyang Jin was the unexpectedly leader after the short program, while World bronze medalist and two-time Grand Prix de France champion Adam Siao Him Fa of France sat in a disappointing 8th place. Estonia’s Aleksandr Selevko, last season’s surprise European silver medalist, was in second, with Japan’s Kazuki Tomono in third.
Skating in the first group, Siao Him Fa delivered a quadruple Lutz to open his Dune free skate, and followed it up with a quadruple toe and five triples in his program. His only mistake was he doubled another planned quadruple toe. Siao Him Fa also did two backflips, one in each program, which are now legal elements this season. He earned a free skate score of 171.68, 35 points below his personal best free skate score of 207.17 and earned a total score of 246.58, also well below his personal best score of 306.78. However, his free skate score was the highest free skate score of the event, helping to elevate him to the gold medal position and win his third consecutive Grand Prix de France title.
Siao Him Fa had postponed the start of his season due to an ankle injury sustained before the start of the season. His first event was the Challenger Series event, Trophée Métropole Nice Côte d’Azur, where he would win the gold medal.
“I put too much pressure on myself in the short program,” Siao Him Fa told the media after his free skate. “It’s only my second competition since I came back from my injury and I had just five weeks of preparation which is not much. After the short program, I took this competition as a practice and I got off all the pressure I had so I felt better.
“I know what I have to work on, there are many things. I will go back to my home town and prepare for the Cup of China. I have little time but I need to prepare smartly and I will just keep going on with the process,” he added.
This wasn’t the only change from the short program. Japan’s Koshiro Shimada, who was in 5th after the short program, moved up to claim the silver medal, his first Grand Prix medal of his career.
Skating to “Danse Macabre”, a program he kept from last season, Shimada executed a quadruple toe as well as seven triples. He earned a season’s best score of 153.42, which was second in the free skate and finished second overall with 233.84 points.
Shimada was shocked to find himself at the free skate press conference.
“We never know what will happen at the competition and I trusted myself in the short program and long program,” he said. “I kept saying ‘today is my day’ and then it happened. I never had such a beautiful experience.”
Shimada finished in 6th place at Skate America and has 18 points in the qualification standings.
Finishing in the bronze medal position was Team USA’s Andrew Torgashev, who was competing in only his second Grand Prix event of his career. In fourth after the short program, Torgashev opened his “Sheherazade” free skate with a quadruple toe-loop. He also landed six triples. He earned a season’s best free skate score of 152.10, which was fourth in the free skate, but he was able to move up a spot with a total score of 233.64 to claim the bronze medal, his first Grand Prix medal.
“It was great,” Torgashev commented. “I didn’t expect to be in this position, but I just went out and tried my best.
Torgashev originally only had one Grand Prix assignment, but a just day after Grand Prix de France, he learned he was the late minute replacement for Canada’s Stephen Gogolev at NHK Trophy.
The leader after the short program, Boyang Jin, dropped to eighth overall, swapping places with Adam Siao Him Fa. Jin had a number of errors in his free skate, where he finished 11th in the segment. Selevko dropped from second to seventh overall and Tomono slipped from third to fifth place.
Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov made history by becoming the first skater to land a triple Axel-quadruple toe-loop combination in competition. He finished just off the podium in fourth place with an overall score of 231.86. Italy’s Nikolaj Memola, who was in tenth place after the short program, had the second best free skate to move up to sixth place with an overall score of 227.62.
Pairs
There wasn’t many surprises in the pairs’ event as World bronze medalists Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin, of Germany, took home the gold in the pairs’ event, ahead of 2023 European champions Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii, of Italy.
The leaders after the short program, Hase and Volodin’s “The Four Seasons” free skate consisted of triple twist, triple toe-double Axel-double Axel sequence, throw triple loop and throw triple Salchow. Their only error was when Volodin stumbled on the side-by-side triple Salchow. The team earned a score of 137.97, which was first in the free skate. They earned a total score of 211.69 to finish first overall.
“We knew that it’s possible to win, but we are happier that we could show our performance again and show everyone that it was not a one -time thing at Nebelhorn Trophy,” Hase commented.
Hase and Volodin will now compete at Cup of China.
Conti and Macii’s “Papa Can You Hear Me?” free skate was highlighted by throw triple Salchow and throw triple loop, as well as a side-by-side triple toe-single Axel-double Axel sequence. The team earned a 132.60 in the free skate, which was second in the free, and a total score of 203. 39 to claim the silver medal.
“This is not the best program we’ve done, we have to work a lot on the all the elements, we can do better, but I’m super happy,” Conti said.
Macii agreed, “It is a very good start for our first Grand Prix. I’m especially happy because I really had to fight for the jumps.”
Conti and Macii also will compete at Cup of China.
Conti and Macii’s teammates, Rebecca Ghilardi and Filippo Ambrosini, came up from sixth after the short program to take the bronze medal. After previously skating to Phantom of the Opera, the two returned to their “Dracula” program from last season.
“We have done two competitions with the Phantom of the Opera but when you don’t really feel what you’re skating to, it’s hard to make the public and the judges feel something too,” Ghilardi explained.
“So we just moved back to Dracula. We say it’s a Dracula 2.0 but we changed a lot of the music and the costumes. It’s not the same as last season but at least we really feel the program and we hope to give a lot to the audience, she added.”
In France, the free skate featured a throw triple Lutz and loop. The two-time European bronze medalists scored 115.88 points in the free skate and skated onto the podium with a total score of 176.26.
Ghilardi and Ambrosini will compete at Finlandia Trophy.
The 2024 Skate America bronze medalists Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov remained in fourth place with 171.92 points. They have 20 points for their two events and will have to wait and see if that is enough to qualify for the ISU Grand Prix Final in Grenoble while defending Grand Prix de France Champions Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud of Canada, who were third after the short program, dropped to fifth with 170.67 points. They next compete at Cup of China.
The 2024 Skate Canada silver medalists Ekaterina Geynish and Dmitrii Chigirev of Uzbekistan finished in sixth place and have 18 points from their two events. They will have to wait and see if that is enough to qualify for the ISU Grand Prix Final.
Dance
There was an unexpected results in the dance event as gold medal favorites Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri, of Italy, dropped from first after the short program to claim the silver, with France’s Evgenia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud claiming their first Grand Prix gold in front of their home crowd. After a disappointing result at Skate Canada last week, Emily Bratti and Ian Somerville of the U.S. took the bronze medal ahead of European bronze medalists Allison Reed and Saulius Ambrulevičius of Lithuania.
To read more about the dance event at Ice-Dance.com.
