NHK Trophy concluded Sunday in Sapporo, Japan with the Free Dance and the Exhibition Gala. NHK Trophy was the sixth and last event in the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Series 2016/17 and competitors booked the last tickets for the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final in Sapporo. Skaters also competed for a prize money of US $ 180,000 per individual event of the Grand Prix.
Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir (CAN) dance to victory
Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir of Canada danced to victory as NHK Trophy concluded Sunday in Sapporo. France’s Gabriella Papadakis/ Guillaume Cizeron took the silver medal and Anna Cappellini/Luca Lanotte of Italy claimed the bronze.
Performing to “Pilgrims on a long journey” and “Latch”, Virtue/Moir completed level-four lifts, spin and twizzles and got a level three for their circular and diagonal step sequences. The 2014 Olympic silver medalists scored a personal best of 116.37 points and totaled 195.84 points. The Canadians set a new record total score, slightly surpassing Meryl Davis/Charlie White’s (USA) record of 195.52 points achieved at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games. “It feels great to be back, we’re excited to build on this momentum as we head into Grand Prix Final”, Virtue said. “Tessa and I always have been a team that doesn’t really pay attention to the points. It is kind of great to hear that you got a world record score, but it doesn’t really mean very much. For us, the focus is just on our skating and just being in the mix again,” Moir explained.
Papadakis/Cizeron’s dance to “Stillness”, “Oddudua” and “Happiness Does Not Wait” was highlighted by beautiful lifts that merited a level four and level-three footwork, but the twizzles were rated a level two. The two-time and reigning World Champions earned 111.06 points and accumulated 186.66 points to remain in second place. “We didn’t have our best performance today, we did a few mistakes and we’re not very happy with our performance. But it’s fine, we learn, it can happen and we’ll get back home and work,” Papadakis commented.
Cappellini/Lanotte produced five level-four elements in their dance to “Charlie Chaplin”, picking up 108.42 points. The 2014 European and World Champions scored 180.42 points. “We were very happy with our performance today, mostly because we were able to skate full out, we didn’t hold back at all, we were able to skate the program as we are able to in practice. We were able to enjoy it and to have many lovely moments with the crowd before we skated and during the performance,” Cappellini shared.
Virtue/Moir and Papadakis/Cizeron qualified for the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final.
Kaitlin Hawayek/Jean-Luc Baker (USA) moved up one spot to fourth at 169.75 points while Victoria Sinitsina/Nikita Katsalapov (RUS) slipped to fifth (169.62 points).
For full entry lists and results of the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating 2016/17 please refer to the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating page. NHK Trophy was the last event of the series and the top six qualifiers in each discipline proceed to the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final in Marseille (FRA) in two weeks.