Las Vegas / USA

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Two-time European champions Evgenia Tarasova/Vladimir Morozov of Russia skated to gold in the Pairs event at the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Guaranteed Rate Skate America in Las Vegas on Saturday. Japan’s Riku Miura/Ryuichi Kihara moved up one spot to take the silver medal, while Russians Aleksandra Boikova/Dmitrii Kozlovskii settled for the bronze. 

Tarasova Morozov

Evgenia Tarasova/Vladimir Morozov © International Skating Union (ISU)

Overnight leaders Tarasova/Morozov produced a triple twist, throw triple flip and loop as well as five level-four elements in their Free Skating to “Lighthouse” by Patrick Watson. However, she doubled the side by side triple Salchow while he wobbled on the triple toe-double toe and did not add the second double toe. The two-time World silver medalists scored a season's best of 142.14 points for a total of 222.50 points. 

“It was not perfect, but it was a good step forward. We’ll work harder to achieve better performances,” Morozov said. “It is a good feeling (to win a Grand Prix again for the first time since 2018). In the last three years we went through many changes. For this season we are back in Moscow and we have a great team, that’s why we gave good results."

Performing to “Woman” by Shawn Philips, Miura/Kihara landed a triple toe-double toe-double toe, triple Salchow and triple twist, but she fell on the throw triple Lutz. The Japanese team set a personal best of 135.57 points and ranked third in the Free Skating, and overall they finished second with 208.20 points to win the first Grand Prix medal for a Japanese Pair in ten years. “Now we aim for another medal at our next Grand Prix event and we would like to get 210 points," Miura said. "We are taking it step by step."

Boikova/Kozlovskii’s program to “Malaguena” included a triple toe, triple twist and throw triple loop, but Boikova missed the second jump in their triple Salchow-Euler-triple Salchow combination and the throw triple flip. The 2020 European Champions amassed a total of 205.53 points to finish in third place. “Not everything worked out, but it was a huge experience for us and very interesting,” Kozlovskii said. 

U.S. Champions Alexa Knierim/Brandon Frazier (USA) moved up from fifth to fourth on 202.97 points with a strong performance and the second-best Free Skating score. Jessica Calalang/Brian Johnson (USA) dropped from fourth to fifth on 197.42 points after making some errors on the side by side jumps.

For full results, click here