Japan swept the singles titles at Skate America behind a strong effort by Miki Ando, the surprise women's winner.
After the far more heralded Mao Asada had one of the worst performances of her young career, it appeared US world champion Kimmie Meissner might grab the gold after a sensational free skate on Saturday night.
Then Ando went her one better.
PHOTO: AP
Actually, quite a few better, landing 10 jumps in the first 2 1/2 minutes and posting a personal-best 125.85 points for the free skate and 192.59 overall. That outdistanced Meissner and the disappointed Asada in a three-way battle of teenage skaters.
For Ando, it was a sizzling start to the season after a distressing Olympics, where she could barely land a jump and finished 15th. Her nation, which owns the women's Olympic gold thanks to Shizuka Arakawa, completed a dominant showing at the first Grand Prix event when Nobunari Oda took the men's title on Friday night.
Ando fought through right foot injuries and some coaching issues a year ago that combined to ruin her season. Putting that behind her, the 18 year old was determined to start this season strongly.
"I couldn't concentrate that much [last year] even though it was a big season," she said through a translator. "It was not easy for me.
"I wanted to perform this way, that I did tonight, in the Olympics. Last year ... I didn't have the attitude of a member of the Japanese team. This year, the image and attitude is very strong and that's why I skated so well," she said.
Skating to a Mendelssohn concerto, Ando sizzled from the outset. Taking the ice directly after Meissner, Ando nailed seven triple jumps, four in combination. At the end, she struggled to catch her breath.
So did the crowd.
The bubbly Meissner, 17, vowed after a mediocre short program that she always does better in the free skate. That, after all, was how she won worlds in March, and how she almost won here.
Her flamenco routine was punctuated by six triple jumps and some enchanting footwork, not a strength in her previous two years as a senior. She threw kisses to the crowd as she left the ice and tended to a cut finger she got during a catch spin while awaiting her marks.
"In the Grand Prix, it's good to know I am getting better," she said, noting her best previous GP finish was fifth. "The program felt great and the crowd liked it, I think."
The crowd was behind Asada, last year's Grand Prix champion who was too young to compete at worlds and in the Turin Olympics. She mesmerized the audience in the short program, but everything went wrong in her long program.
Her opening triple axel, something few women even practice, turned into a single. She didn't complete a triple jump until 2:31 into the program. Her spins were very slow and other than her smooth and lengthy spirals, the 16-year-old Asada struggled and fell to third place.
Later on Saturday, two-time US champions Rena Inoue and John Baldwin won the pairs crown even though Poland's Dorota and Mariuz Siudek took the free skate.
Inoue and Baldwin failed to land their trademark throw triple axel -- she fell hard on it in the long program -- but had a big enough lead after the short program to capture their first Grand Prix trophy.
Earlier, world championship winners Maxim Staviski and Albena Denkova of Bulgaria overcame a crash, a cut and a bloodied costume to win the ice dancing gold medal.
The Bulgarians swept all three stages to finish ahead of US skaters Melissa Gregory and Denis Petukhov. The free dance wasn't easy, though, after they were involved in a morning practice collision with Britain's Sinead and John Kerr.
Staviski tweaked his hip and Denkova cut the back of her right leg, with the blood running onto her partner's white outfit.
"Ice skating is dangerous," Staviski joked after the veteran couple won the first event of the season.
"I took some special gel and ice, but I couldn't lift my leg after practice," he said. "But we actually skated the program without problems, although it was painful at the end."
The title helped to allay his pain, though, and it made their decision not to retire after winning worlds seem correct.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier