Figure skaters Natálie and Filip Taschler are fourth at the Finlandia Trophy after a rhythmic dance. In their second Grand Prix competition of the year, the Czech couple is in the same position, thanks to which they achieved the maximum in the elite series at the Canadian Skate. Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier are leading the reigning world vice-champions.
The Taschler siblings had an excellent passage with the compulsory part in Helsinki, but lost slightly with a mistake in the twizzles. Nevertheless, with a mark of 75.50 points, they created a season high and are still just below the podium. They lose almost three points to the third place Finns Juuliia Turkkila and Matthias Versluis. Free dances are on the program on Sundays from 13:40 CET.
Gilles and Poirier have confirmed the role of favorites and after the triumph at the Canadian Skate, they are attacking for their second victory. With a score of 84.65 points, they created a lead of 2.62 points over Britons Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson, who won the US Figure Skating at the start of this year’s Grand Prix.
Progress to the Grad Prix final in December was secured by Juma Kagiyama’s second win. The Japanese figure skater benefited from the lead after the short program, in the free run he unrolled the opening quadruple flip prematurely and then made a mistake in the quadruple salchow. The Olympic silver medalist had only the fifth free run and less than four points remained from the nearly nineteen-point lead, by which he beat the second Frenchman, Kevin Aymoz.
“Instead of being happy, I rather regret how I skated in the free skate. I think it was probably the worst program I rode this season,” he said. The Italian Daniel Grassl, who was sixth after the short program, moved to the third place with the best free ride.
The women’s competition was won by Japan’s Hana Yoshida, who recovered from a fall during the opening triple axel and won 199.46 points, beating compatriot Rino Macuike by just 26 hundredths of a point. She paid extra to write off one point for exceeding the time limit. Itaka’s Lara Naki Gutmann was happy about her third place, who entered the competition only after the withdrawal of world vice-champion Isabeau Levitová from the USA and European champion Loena Hendrickxová from Belgium. Among the women, she made it to the podium in this year’s Grand Prix as the first representative of a country other than Japan and the United States of America.
Source: www.tyden.cz
