Virtue and Moir finally claim elusive Grand Prix Final title

Virtue and Moir, who are also two-time world champions, returned to competitive skating this year after two years away.

They won gold at the 2010 Games on home ice in Vancouver, and took silver two years ago at the Sochi Games in Russia behind Americans Merly Davis and Charlie White.

But they had never won at the Final before, placing second in three consecutive years to Davis and White from 2012-14.

Taking a break and coming back refreshed, there was no stopping them this time.

As their free dance ended, they hugged in relief, perhaps confident in the knowledge that they had easily done enough.

“(We were) relieved for a couple of reasons. We never won it and people have reminded us that a couple of times this week,” Moir said. “Our goal was just to be in the mix and it’s special to win this title. This is not something we expected.”

The expectation level will go up now, however, as rivals know they are back in business.

“We have a huge target on our backs,” Moir said. “Our workload just multiplied by 10.”

As the scores came in, Moir dropped his head onto Virtue’s shoulder and smiled.

To celebrate, they gleefully brandished the Canadian flag on a celebratory lap.

“The crowd was fabulous and there was a great energy in the building,” Virtue said.

Later, Evgenia Medvedeva stumbled on her first jump and then nailed all the others as she successfully defended her title.

The 17-year-old Russian could afford to make a mistake, however, having set a world record in the short program.

When she came onto the ice for her free skate, the cheers were still echoing around the Palais Omnisports in Marseille following a clinical and elegant performance from Japan’s Satoko Miyahara to the sounds of Gustav Holst’s “The Planets.”

Medvedeva appeared a little nervous.

It showed as she stumbled backward on the ice after landing awkwardly on a triple flip, triple toe loop.

She glared at the ice, giving it a look of disdain.

But the blip seemed to spur her on, and her triple lutz was perfect, as were the triple loop and triple flip.

Gaining in confidence, the world champion executed a triple salchow-triple toe loop and then a double axel as if going through her training drills.

When her winning score of 227.66 points came in, she wiped her brow. She need not have, because the scores did not end up close.

Miyahara scored 218.33 as she finished runner-up for a second time.

Anna Pogorilya made it two Russian women on the podium, rising up to third on 216.47.

Kaetlyn Osmond of Marystown, N.L., making her Grand Prix Final debut, produced a clean program but still dropped from second to fourth overall with a personal best 212.45 points. She was less than six points from the silver medal position.

“Obviously I’m really happy with the free program,” said Osmond. “The few mistakes that I did were really silly ones for me and wish I could take them back. Still there’s a lot for me to be proud of in that skate.”

Later Saturday, Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan defended his men’s Grand Prix Final title despite some miscues.

Hanyu started well, executing his quad loop jump as if tip-toeing onto a velvet cushion, rather than landing on rock-hard ice. So when he fell on his quad salchow-triple toe loop attempt, the crowd gasped in surprise. But they still showered the arena with flowers at the end.

Hanyu’s winning score of 293.90 put him way ahead of his established main rivals: Two-time former champion Patrick Chan of Canada and two-time world champion Javier Fernandez of Spain. Both failed to finish in the top three.

Instead, 17-year-old American Nathan Chen got the best free score to finish second overall in his first senior Final with 282.85 points, doing just enough to beat 18-year-old Shoma Uno of Japan on 282.51. Uno matched his third-place finish from last year.

Chan had been second after Thursday’s short program, and Fernandez third.

They both crumbled.

Fernandez stumbled on his quad salchow attempt and fell on the next jump — a triple axel — to finish fourth overall.

Chan did not skate like a three-time world champion, falling three times to drift down to fifth, with only American Adam Rippon behind him.

Jerome Pugmire, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Virtue and Moir finally claim elusive Grand Prix Final title

What's Trending