ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating: NHK Trophy
Day One
The NHK Trophy in Sendai, Japan opened Thursday with the
Compulsory Dance and the Pairs Short Program. The NHK Trophy
is the sixth and last event of the 2007/2008 ISU Grand Prix
of Figure Skating and held for the first time in Sendai. The
skaters compete for a global prize money of US $ 180, 000
per individual event of the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating
and receive points according to their placements. The top
six skaters/couples then qualify for the ISU Grand Prix of
Figure Skating Final in Torino, Italy (December 13-16). Skaters
are vying for the last open spots for the Final at NHK Trophy.
Ice Dancing, Compulsory Dance
The Compulsory Dance at NHK Trophy is the Argentine Tango.
The Argentine Tango was created by Reginald J. Wilkie and
Daphne B. Wallis. It was first performed in London in 1934.
Isabelle Delobel/Olivier Schoenfelder of France took the lead
while Canadians Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir edged out Russia’s
Jana Khokhlova/Sergei Novitski by less than one point for
second place.
Delobel/Schoenfelder turned in a mature and sophisticated
performance of the Argentine Tango, showing off strong edges
and their experience. The European Champions picked up 38.96
points (19.94 element score/19.02 program component score).
“We did a nice compulsory tonight and we’re happy
what we did. There were quite a few people in the audience
for the compulsories and it was nice to compete for them”,
Delobel commented. “We’ll just stay relaxed and
we’ll do what we want to do. Each part of the competition
is separate and we’re trying to show our best in each
part”, she continued, referring to their lead of 4.32
points.
Virtue/Moir skated also a very elegant and clean Tango to
score 34.67 points (17.36/17.31).
Khokhlova/Novitski’s Argentine Tango was passionate
and strong as well, earning them 34.23 points (17.42/17.31).
Pairs, Short Program
Aliona Savchenko/Robin Szolkowy of Germany won the Pairs Short
Program ahead of Tatiana Volosozhar/Stanislav Morozov (UKR)
and Canada’s Jessica Dubé/Bryce Davison.
Savchenko/Szolkowy, who were the top ranked couple and skated
last, gave an excellent performance to the “Bollywood”
soundtrack of “Asoka”. The European Champions
hit a throw triple flip, a triple flip, a side by side triple
toe and a difficult Axel Lasso to score a new personal best
of 70.32 points (39.92 element score/30.40 program component
score). Theeir death spiral was graded a level four, and their
pair combination spin and their intricate interweaving straight
line step sequence was graded a level three. “Our program
today was much better than last week in Moscow (at the Cup
of Russia)”, Szolkowy told the press. “We still
had a few small mistakes in the elements and there are things
left to work on. For tomorrow we want to skate a clean program
and want to show what we do in training.”
Skating to “The Feeling Begins” by Peter Gabriel,
Volosozhar/Morozov produced a side by side triple toeloop,
big triple twist and throw triple loop as well as an Axel
Lasso with an one armed entry. However, their pair combination
spin and their death spiral got only a level one. The Ukrainians
posted 60.14 points (34.62/25.52), surpassing their previous
personal best of 57.62 points.
Dubé/Davison had to overcome a rough start into their
“Galicia Flamenco” program when she went down
on their first element, the triple Salchow. The Skate America
Champions recovered to land a double twist and a throw triple
loop and showed two level-four spins. The Canadians earned
58.16 points (32.92/26.24).
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