15-year-old Anna Shcherbakova of Russia became the first senior lady to complete two quadruple Lutz jumps in international competition en route to winning her first ever senior Grand Prix title in Las Vegas on Saturday at Skate America.
In her senior Grand Prix debut, Shcherbakova opened her free skate with a clean quad Lutz, triple toe combination followed by a clean solo quad Lutz. She also included two triple-triple combinations in her free skate — a triple Lutz, triple loop (where the loop was called under-rotated) and a triple flip, Euler, triple Salchow (where the Salchow was called under-rotated) — which scored 160.16 points. She won gold with a total score of 227.76 points, vaulting from fourth after the short program to land atop the podium.
“I was really excited to skate my first time at senior Grand Prix. I was little bit nervous, too, but it was OK and my coaches helped me to do my best,” Shcherbakova said in English following her victory. “We work on this jump a lot and we jump it every day, every training. I’m so happy I can show that I can do quad jumps. I’m really happy today that I did two quads.”
Another notable feature of Shcherbakova’s free skate? A mid-program, mid-ice costume change.
Shcherbakova trains alongside reigning world and Olympic champion Alina Zagitova in Moscow under coach Eteri Tutberidze, known for training a host of burgeoning Russian skaters. She’s next scheduled to compete on the Grand Prix circuit at Cup of China in November.
Despite competing at the junior level at the time, Shcherbakova won the Russian national title ahead of skaters like Zagitova and Olympic silver medalist Yevgenia Medvedeva. She also won silver at last season’s world junior championships.
MORE: A quad revolution coming to ladies’ skating
Bradie Tennell, who led after Friday’s short program, wound up in second place after a clean free skate that scored 141.04 points for a total overall score of 216.14 points. That left her sandwiched between the Russians. It’s her first silver medal on the Grand Prix series after winning bronze at Skate America in 2017 and bronze at Grand Prix France in 2018.
“I think going into next week, that’s my main goal is to just skate free,” Tennell said through U.S. Figure Skating, referencing her next Grand Prix competition next weekend at Skate Canada. “I’m always trying to improve in every aspect of my skating, and I think it’s been a process. But I think anything is. You don’t get a jump in a day, so you can’t expect to improve your skating in a week. I think that last year was a very good learning year for me. Going into this season, I’m able to take my experiences from last year and draw from them to better myself for this year.”
MORE: Bradie Tennell’s personality shines through at Skate America
Yelizaveta Tuktamysheva, the 2015 world champion from Russia, was fifth after the short program but executed two clean triple Axels (one in combination with a double toe) to start off her free skate. She scored 138.69 in the free skate and ultimately finished with a bronze medal with 205.97 total points.
Japan’s skaters were in second and third place after the short program on Friday, but Kaori Sakamoto slid to fourth and Wakaba Higuchi fell to sixth. Sakamoto finished with silver medals at Skate America for the past two years, and Higuchi won silver at the 2018 World Championships.
Skate America results are here.
Karen Chen, competing in her first major international event since the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, fell three times and finished eighth. She scored 99.64 in the free skate for 165.67 total points. The Cornell University freshman called this year her “comeback year” after a foot injury and is also slated to compete at NHK Trophy in Japan in November.
“It was definitely hard for me to find my rhythm today,” said Chen, who fought a cold at Skate America. “I’m so congested and it was really hard for me to breathe through my nose, so I started doing a lot of panting, and I think as I was just doing my program, I was just rushed and panting a lot. I wasn’t doing my deep breaths, so it just affected how I felt throughout my whole program. I thankfully have some time before NHK – time to regroup and start fresh
The third American in the field, Amber Glenn, totaled 104.92 points in the free skate and finished in seventh place with a total of 169.63 points.
The Grand Prix season continues next weekend with Skate Canada, taking place in Kelowna, British Columbia. Coverage will be available to NBC Sports Gold “Figure Skating Pass” subscribers and televised. Check out the 2019-20 season broadcast schedule for more details.
Skate America: Nathan Chen, Jason Brown 1-2 in men’s | Hubbell, Donohue defend ice dance title
As a reminder, you can watch the events from the 2019-20 figure skating season live and on-demand with the ‘Figure Skating Pass’ on NBC Sports Gold. Go to NBCsports.com/gold/figure-skating to sign up for access to every ISU Grand Prix and championship event, as well as domestic U.S. Figure Skating events throughout the season. NBC Sports Gold gives subscribers an unprecedented level of access on more platforms and devices than ever before.
OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!
Follow @rchlltz
