Sapporo, Japan

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Two-time Olympic Champion Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan triumphed on home ice to claim victory in the NHK Trophy with 55 points to spare. France’s Kevin Aymoz skated to the silver medal and Canadian Roman Sadovsky moved up to take the bronze, the first Grand Prix medal of his career. Hanyu and Aymoz qualified for the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final.

Kevin Aymoz FRA Yuzuru Hanyu JPN Roman Sadovsky CAN GPFS JPN 2019 Internatioanl Skating Union ISU 1189545368

Kevin Aymoz (FRA), Yuzuru Hanyu (JPN) and Roman Sadovsky (CAN) at the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating (JPN) 2019©International Skating Union (ISU)

Hanyu opened his performance to ‘Origin’ (Art on Ice by Edvin Marton) with a quadruple loop and followed up with a quadruple Salchow, triple Lutz and a quadruple toeloop. When the two-time World Champion doubled his next planned quad toe he just changed his program on the go and threw in a quad toe-triple toe as the next jump (he under-rotated the triple toe).

Hanyu went on to complete a triple Axel-Euler-triple Salchow combination and collected a level four for his spins and footwork. The 2019 World silver medalist scored 195.71 points and racked up 305.05 points overall for his eighth Grand Prix gold medal.

"For now I'm happy that I was able to get through, leading up the free program, stayed healthy, had no pain and no injuries. I'm also now going to the final. I want to recover by then and do some more training and coordination to be ready for the Final,” Hanyu said.

“If something happens with my quad toeloop like it did today, then I try to recover that and basically go over that barrier,” he explained.

Yuzuru Hanyu JPN GPFS JPN 2019 International Skating Union ISU 1189556343

Yuzuru Hanyu (JPN) at the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating (JPN) 2019©International Skating Union (ISU) 

Aymoz’s performance to ‘Lighthouse’ by Patrick Watson was highlighted by a triple Axel-triple toeloop combination and excellent spins and footwork. However, the French Champion under-rotated his quadruple toeloop and some of his triple jumps were not clean. The Internationaux de France bronze medalist notched 158.55 points and was ranked third in the Free Skating, but overall held on to second place at 250.02 points.

“Today was hard to me to fight, to I give the best I can tonight. For the moment, I'm just under tension and I'm still on ice, so I'm just happy to be there and skate,” the Internationaux de France bronze medalist commented.

“It's going to be my first Grand Prix Final. It wasn't the main goal of my season. So I'm just going to take the experience of this competition to maybe get the podium in a few seasons,” he added.

Kevin Aymoz FRA GPFS JPN 2019 International Skating Union ISU 1189574279

Kevin Aymoz (FRA) at the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating (JPN) 2019©International Skating Union (ISU)

Performing to ‘Hatikva’, Sadovsky landed a quadruple Salchow, another quadruple Salchow (in combination with an under-rotated triple Salchow) as well as three clean triple jumps to set a personal best of 168.99 points. With a total of 247.50 points, he moved up one spot to third.

“I feel I'm so really new to the senior Grand Prix circuit in general, so I'm happy that I could perform my long program really well. A little disappointed with my short, the silly mistakes that could be easily fixed and I'm hoping that this first success in the senior Grand Prix won't be my last,” the Canadian told the press.

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Roman Sadovsky (CAN) at the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating (JPN) 2019©International Skating Union (ISU)

Sergei Voronov (RUS) slipped from third to fourth on 239.05 points. Jason Brown (USA) moved up from eighth to fourth at 231.27 points and Sota Yamamoto (JPN) came sixth (226.27 points).

ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Standings Men.

NHK Trophy concludes Sunday with the Exhibition Gala.

Overall, 58 skaters/couples representing 11 ISU members competed at NHK Trophy November 22-24. The top 6 qualifiers of the Grand Prix series in each discipline will proceed to the Final in Turin (ITA), December 5 to 8, 2019. Full entry lists, results, the General Announcement of the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Series are available on isu.org.

Where to watch and follow the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating 2019

Viewers will be able to watch the Series either via their national broadcaster / channel and for countries where there are no broadcasters, the ISU will offer a live stream on the Skating ISU YouTube Channel as of season 2019/20. You will find the full list in the Where to watch news here.

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ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating 2019/20

Skate America - Las Vegas (USA) – October 18 – 20

Skate Canada International – Kelowna (CAN) – October 25 – 27

Internationaux de France – Grenoble (FRA) – Novembre 1 – 3

SHISEIDO cup of China – Chongqing (CHN) – November 8 – 10

Rostelecom Cup – Moscow (RUS) – November 15 – 17

NHK Trophy – Sapporo (JPN) – November 22 – 24

ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final (Senior & Junior) – Torino (ITA) – December 5 – 8