(11 December 2014)  The short program of the pairs in front of about 4400 spectators from all over the world was the first senior event of the 2014 Grand Prix Final in Barcelona.

Meagan Duhamel & Eric Radford from Canada took the first place with 74.50 points in a completely flawless program. The bronze medal winner of the last two world championships skated to the song “Un peu plus haut” (A bit higher) by the Quebec singer Ginette Ren. Their triple twist was very good, the side by side triple lutz safe as well. The students of Richard Gauthier and Bruno Marcotte had announced to perform a triple throw lutz like usual, but the jury decided that it was a triple throw flip. Four elements got Level 4, at least one judge gave a +3 for each of these four elements, but the majority of the GOE were +2. One judge gave them a 10.0 for choreography, which was a bit too high. The average level of the component marks was around 8.6.

Right after the program, Duhamel commented: “We were not nervous on the Grand Prix circuit, but here at the Final with the world’s best skaters we were nervous. But we trusted our work at home and as soon as the music started we were able to calm down and centre ourselves.” Later she added: “We would go to competitions and stress would just weigh us down and our coaches were like, how do we get them to perform in competition the way they do in practice and it’s like we found that balance and formula that we’re able to bring to competition that feeling and energy that we do every morning to training.  At each competition we get more confident in the technical moments and that leaves us freer to feel the emotion of the program more and more. It’s our long term goal to get to the Olympics in 2018 but we have so many short term goals and life events that will happen along the way so we’re not getting carried away with 2018. We’ll enjoy the time as it comes. We’ll work hard and all of a sudden it’s going to be here.”

Radford added: “I think last season we put too much pressure on ourselves. At the end of last year we thought we’d do one more year and retire. Skating started to feel too heavy but when we came back after the summer break and started work on the throw quad we felt a lightness and freedom. We didn’t work at it; it just happened and we carried this into competitions. That was our biggest goal to have more freedom and less tension. And I think it shows in our faces. There’s less of a look of fear.”

Radford also spoke about his coming out as gay last week and his role model for other athletes: “First of all the support I’ve had has been phenomenal, almost overwhelming. You never know if what you’ve done is going to reach people and make a difference. I’ve received numerous messages from young athletes saying it’s made a difference. I would have killed for that when I was younger so it’s very fulfilling.”

Ksenia Stolbova & Fedor Klimov from Russia also made no mistake at all in their program to the Chinese soundtrack of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and are second with72.33 points. The side by side triple toe loop of the students of Nina Mozer was in perfect harmony, the triple throw Lutz high and wide, the lift was easy-looking and the step sequence very dynamic. Technically everything was excellent, but Stolbova lacks a bit of contact to the public and emotions.

Right after the competition, Klimov said: “We skated OK, but I guess maybe only ok. I honestly don’t know what happened. We had to fight a bit, and obviously that was noticeable. We weren’t particularly nervous, but something happened.” Stolbova added: “We got level 3 for our list and we wanted a level 4. So we did not get what we wanted today.” Later he added: I think we did all the elements we planned but it was like a practice. For me I think I could skate better but we did all the elements so it was kind of good. Our coaches are planning the next years for us. We talked about that with them but it was just a little conversation and we don’t know exactly what we will do next year. But our team, our coaches, they know.”

Wenjing Sui & Cong Han were the best of the three Chinese teams and sit on third position, winning 66.66 points in an almost flawless program to the music “Stray Cat Strut”. Sui touched down her hand the triple toeloop, but everything else was at least good. All five elements with a level had a level 4, including the excellent triple twist and the step sequence, but there were more +1 than +2 or +3. Sui was disappointed after her program: “It wasn’t very good. I put a hand down on my jump. I don’t know why but it was not good.”

Two minutes after the competition, Han said: “We feel very sad. It’s not how we do it usually. I think we were a little nervous.” But 30 minutes later, his mood had improved: “I feel so happy we have three teams in this competition. I give thanks to my coach who gave us the chance. I felt that it was a very powerful feeling in the competition that our team was so strong. We are already thinking about next Olympics but we don’t have any concrete plans so now we just keep working and improving day by day.” They now train mainly with Hongbo Zhao, the Olympic Champion of 2010.

The Junior World Champions Xiaoyu Yu & Yang Jin, also from China, made no mistakes and sit in fourth position, earning 62.71 points. The triple twist was their best element, the throw triple loop was good as well and the other elements at least safe. They have an elegant style and might have a bright future ahead of them. Yu said: “We feel good because we almost did our best and we didn’t make many mistakes. But we didn’t do enough, for examples using our knees, and giving expression.”

The third Chinese pair of Cheng Peng & Hao Zhang is fifth with 62.46 points. Peng went down on the side by side triple toe loop, but all other elements were clean, including the huge triple throw loop which was their best element and got six +3 and three +2 by the judges. Peng commented: “I was a little careless, so I missed the jump and I hurt my (right) arm.” Zhang added: “My partner injured herself in the fall. We’ll be careful in practice tomorrow and we will see if the injury will affect her.”

Yuko Kavaguti & Alexander Smirnov from Russia did not perform as well as at their two Grand Prix assignements, won only 55.97 points and are in sixth place. Kavaguti fell on the triple toe loop as well as on the triple throw loop and the triple twist was not correctly landed in the air. The well-known classical music “Meditation” from the Opera Thais by Jules Massenet did not shine as usual. Lift and steps were very good however. Smirnov said: “We were expecting a different skate. We just should forget about this, we have almost one day and just need to enjoy the next part of the competition. And remembering previous competitions, I would say that the Grand Prix Final is just not our competition.”