Pairs

Final Results

Short Program

The current World medalists skated one after the other in the last flight but in reverse order from the results at Worlds.  World bronze medalists Sarah Abitbol & Stephane Bernadis (FRA) presented their "Ninja" program (inspired by martial arts) at high speed.  However, Bernadis touched down on their side-by-side triple toe loops, and their side-by-side spin was out of sync.

Next skated China's World silver medalists, Xue Shen & Hongbo Zhao.  Skating to "Allegretto" by Karl Jenkins, Shen barely held onto the landing of the triple toe loop. The team's lift looked very short, but their throw triple loop was impressive.

Last to skate were reigning World Champions Maria Petrova & Alexei Tikhonov.   They opened their program to Russian Folk music with side-by-side triple toe loops, but Petrova's landing was shaky.  The team from St. Petersburg completed a throw triple throw Salchow and a difficult lift.  The judges were divided between the top three couples.  Petrova & Tikhonov took ordinals ranging from four first and four second places, to one third place ordinal to win the short program, while Shen & Zhao finished second, ahead of Abitbol & Bernadis.

The team of Inga Rodionova & Andrei Kroukov from Azerbaijan withdrew just after the warm-up because Rodionova wasn't feeling well.

Free Skating

Short program leaders Maria Petrova & Alexei Tikhonov of Russia skated first in the last flight.  The World Champions opened their program with side-by-side triple toe loops, but Tikhonov touched down with his hand.  The couple recovered quickly, however, and landed a double Axel - steps - double toe loop sequence.  Although their romantic program to "Le Tourment" and "Vision du Paradis" by French composer Saint-Preux also featured spectacular lifts, it still was not enough to win. The Russians dropped to third place in the free program, finishing third overall.  Said Tikhonov, "We didn't skate badly, but I missed the triple toe loop. It wasn't enough, we lost, and this means there is something left to work on. We hope to skate better at the upcoming competitions."  Petrova & Tikhonov plan to include throw triple throw toe loop again in their next competition.  They had downgraded the difficulty of their program with a double throw Axel because Petrova was injured earlier this season.

World Silver Medallists Xue Shen & Hongbo Zhao (CHN) were still looking for their first win of this season at NHK.  The Chinese team put in a technically strong performance.  They reeled off a double Axel - steps - triple toe loop sequence, another set of side-by-side triple toe loops and two impressive triple throws (loop and Salchow) in their dynamic program "Spirit of Spring".  Their marks were as high as 5.9 for both technical merit and presentation.  Nonetheless, the judges had left a little room for Sarah Abitbol & Stephane Bernadis (FRA) who had yet to skate.

The World Bronze Medalists landed side-by-side triple toe loops, but Bernadis put his hand down on a double Axel.  The emotional 'Tristan and Isolde" program also included good lifts, a throw triple loop and a huge throw double Axel, but it was Shen & Zhao's night as they won the gold, while the French team had to settle for the silver medal.  "We are honored to have won this competition", said Zhao.   "However, I think we skated better at the Cup of Russia."  Shen had broken a nail in practice and said she was in pain, but didn't let it influence her performance.  Abtibol & Bernadis were happy with the silver medal. "I believe this is the place we belong tonight", commented Bernadis. "It was a good competition for us, although it was difficult because of the jet-lag and the long trip. We traveled about 25 hours to come here."

All three medal winners here are qualified for the Final.  Abitbol & Bernadis scored 9 points, while Petrova & Tikhonov got 7. Shen & Zhao had already qualified before coming to Japan and the NHK Trophy was their additional non-scoring event.

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