Lake Placid / United States

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World silver medalists Aliona Savchenko/Bruno Massot of Germany soared to victory in the Pairs Free Skating at Bridgestone Skate America in Lake Placid on Saturday. China’s Xiaoyu Yu/Hao Zhang claimed the silver medal while two-time World Champions Meagan Duhamel/Eric Radford of Canada dropped to third. All three teams qualify for the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final.

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Savchenko/Massot’s exquisite routine to 'La terre vue du ciel' was highlighted by a huge triple twist, a throw triple Salchow, side by side triple toeloop and spectacular lifts.

Savchenko only reduced the combination to triple Salchow-single toeloop-single toeloop and slightly touched down with her free foot on the throw triple Lutz.

The European and World silver medalists posted a new personal best of 150.58 points for a total of 223.13 points to move up from third to first place.

“I feel better than yesterday,” said Massot, who had fallen on the triple Salchow in the Short Program.

“It was a good fight and it was the first good job of the season. We still have to work, it was still not perfect, but we are on a good way for the Olympics.”

Yu/Zhang delivered a strong program to ‘Star Wars’, producing a triple Salchow, triple twist, throw triple loop and Salchow as well as two level-four lifts.

The Audi Cup of China silver medalists earned 145.53 points, a new personal best, for a total of 219.20 points, to remain in second place.

“We are very happy, we did our best. We are very glad to go to the Grand Prix Final again,” Yu said.

Performing to songs by Muse, Duhamel/Radford nailed a triple twist, triple Salchow-double toe-double toe, throw triple Lutz as well as level-four lifts.

However, Duhamel stepped out of the landing of the quadruple throw Salchow and fell on the triple Lutz.

The two-time World Champions scored 140.31 points and accumulated 215.68 points overall.

“Today wasn’t our best skate, but it wasn’t our worst," Duhamel said. "Overall we’re happy with our competition.

"This is a part of going to the Grand Prix Final, the last Grand Prix we’re competing [at] and I refuse to feel frustrated. We’re on the podium with these great teams and it was a great competition and we want to be proud."

Natalia Zabiiako/Alexander Enbert (RUS) placed fourth on 197.89 points and Alexa Scimeca Knierim/Chris Knierim (USA) were fifth on 189.07 points. Kirsten Moore-Towers/Michael Marinaro (CAN) pulled up from seventh to sixth place (187.81 points).

Bridgestone Skate America is the sixth and last event in the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating series and provides the last opportunity for skaters to qualify for the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final in Nagoya, Japan, in December.

The top six skaters/couples in each discipline qualify for the Final. The global prize money for the Grand Prix is US$ 272,000.

Full entry lists and results of the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating 2017/18 are available here. Follow the discussion on social media by using #GPFigure #FigureSkating.