Rochette, Abbott take Skate Canada golds
- Source: Global Times
- [23:08 November 22 2009]
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Joannie Rochette (middle), Alissa Czisny (left) and Laura Lepisto pose with their medals on the podium after the women's free skate competition Sunday. Photo: AFP
World silver medalist Joannie Rochette won her second straight Skate Canada women's title Sunday and booked her ticket to the Grand Prix Final in Tokyo.
Reigning US and Grand Prix Final champion Jeremy Abbott held on to win the men's gold ahead of Japan's Daisuke Takahashi. Both men earned trips to the Grand Prix Final, which will serve as the final showdown for the sport's elite ahead of the Vancouver Olympics.
Abbott finished second to Takahashi in the closing free skate, despite landing a beautiful quadruple toe-loop.
His almost three-point lead from the short program kept him on top with 232.99 points.
Takahashi, who holds the record for the highest total points score, missed all of last season following knee surgery.
Both men had a few small glitches with their jump landings but neither made any major error.
The bronze medal went to Frenchman Alban Preaubert with 212.28 points, while top-seeded home hope Patrick Chan settled for sixth.
Rochette, the five-time Canadian champion, delivered a competent but certainly not stellar performance to Samson and Delilah. In fact, there was not one shining star in the 11-woman field.
Rochette put a total of 182.90 points on the board, struggling to hold on to landings of two triple jumps early on and turning two planned triples to doubles.
US champion Alissa Czisny was second with 163.53. She fell twice but landed four triple jumps and showed superior spins.
Finland's Laura Lepisto, the reigning European champion, earned the bronze medal with 158.82, although she did scale back three planned triple jumps into doubles.
Earlier, Germany's reigning two-time world pairs champions Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy rebounded from their disappointing third-place result in Paris to capture gold with a sensational new program set to the film soundtrack Out of Africa.
Savchenko and Szolkowy earned 206.71 points in all – the highest total score ever recorded in pairs competition.
Russia's Maria Mukhortova and Maxim Trankov took silver and Canadians Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison took bronze.
Agencies
