USA's Gracie Gold won her first Grand Prix gold medal and her first international competition with a first place finish. She had a high-scoring short program that put her in a slight lead. Her long program also had the best score of the day, but she was not perfect- she took a fall and turned a couple triples to doubles. This performance was a definite improvement on her Skate America showing and should giver her some confidence heading to the Final. However, she needs to get her jumps back on track to have a shot at the podium at the Grand Prix final, where the field will be much deeper than here in Japan.
Alena Leonova rebounded from her disappointing finish at Skate Canada with a silver medal. She had a wonderful short program that garnered a high score and second place by less than a point. Her long program was better than her poor one at Skate Canada, but she's still struggling with it and it looks messy to me. This finish did not qualify for the Final, so she can take some time off to train before the Russian Nationals. She will need much more polish to her programs to have a chance to medal at that highly competitive event and make it to Worlds. Claiming her second bronze medal of the series, Satoko Miyahra also did not qualify for the Final- although she is an alternate. The judges do not seem to be giving Miyahara any slack. As I've said before, I really love her long program and overall skating style, but she's getting lower component scores and getting hit with under rotation calls. I think this young skater has incredible potential. She's proven herself to be a contender to the Japanese ladies title and I cannot wait to see how she does at that event. I would love to see her qualify to skate at Worlds. Other News Off the Podium: American Polina Edmunds had a disappointing eighth place finish after a disastrous short program. She seems to truly be struggling so far this season with her jumps. Is it the pressure or is she hitting the end of her little girl skater glory? We will have to see how she pulls it together for Nationals as she tries to defend her podium finish. Japan's Kanako Murakami had the third place spot over countrywoman Miyahra heading into the free skate, but made several mistakes and dropped to fourth. She will face stiff competition from Miyahara for the Japanese ladies title.
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November 2017
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