Ambitious Jumping and One or Two Surprises at the Finlandia Trophy

The ongoing historical saga of the quad jump continues in the men, pairs teams bite off more than they can chew, and surprises win the ladies and dance.

The last of the Challenger events until late November, the Finlandia Trophy, took place this weekend in Espo. Now twenty years old, it has often hosted significant competitions, and at one point looked like it might be converted into a Grand Prix event. That ultimately didn’t happen, but plenty of top skaters chose to start their season here. Most of them did not skate their best, but the men’s winner made a little bit more history.

Men

US american’ s figure skating winner Nathan Chen performs during the men’s free skating at the Finlandia Trophy competition in Espoo, Finland, on October 9, 2016. / AFP / Lehtikuva / Martti Kainulainen / Finland OUT (Photo credit should read MARTTI KAINULAINEN/AFP/Getty Images)

At his first senior international competition, young American Nathan Chen won, though it wasn’t without effort. He probably should’ve won the short program, where he became the first man to even try both quadruple lutz and quadruple flip jumps in competition. Unfortunately, while he landed the lutz in combination with a triple toe loop, he fell on the flip. The lead thus narrowly went to Russian Maxim Kovtun, who landed a quad salchow with a triple toe and stumbled on a quad toe. He got ahead due to higher presentation marks, probably from reputation, because Chen’s rapidly become the better performer of the two. In third was Patrick Chan, who did only a solo quad toe, and nearly fell on both it and his triple axel.

In the free, however, it was impossible for anyone to match Chen’s technical content. His technical tariff, crazily, passed 100 points and was over 30 points more than anyone else’s. He got it by going for and rotating a whopping five quads. He even successfully landed a clean quad toe-double toe-double loop combination. The other quads weren’t entirely clean, but his quad lutz-triple toe combination and solo quad flip had only minor errors, although he fell on the quads toe and salchow. The only skater to come without ten points of him overall was Chan. He went only for two quad toes. The first he landed, but the second underrotated and fell on to lose a combination. He also struggled with his three jump and had other minor issues. But his presentation scores were over ten points higher than anyone else’s, and that helped him to the silver.

Kovtun struggled a lot more. He landed a quad toe, but tripled his and badly landed salchow. This mistakes cost him one of his intended triples, since it made what would’ve been his second salchow of the program an illegal third one. Between that, a singled lutz, and other mistakes, he was actually fourth in the free skate, below countryman Alexander Petrov. Petrov did no quads, and also popped a lutz, but he landed the rest of his triples. But he only beat Kovtun by a point, and he’d been seventh after the short due to a doubled lutz. He only moved up to sixth, and Kovtun took bronze.

Ladies

Kaetlyn Osmond of Canada performs her routine in the Ladies’ free skating during the figure skating Finlandia Trophy competition in Espoo, Finland, on October 7, 2016. / AFP / Lehtikuva / Roni Rekomaa / Finland OUT (Photo credit should read RONI REKOMAA/AFP/Getty Images)

The most packed field was the ladies one, which included two former world champions still trying to fight their way back to glory. Although there are some things Mao Asada will never lose. Some sections in both of her intense two programs were downright sublime. She even came close to maxing out the values of her choreographic and step sequences in the free. But she did neither her much vaunted triple axel nor any triple-triple combinations. When her triples weren’t always pretty, that was a problem, especially when in the free she doubled a flip.

Still, she very nearly won the gold. After the short, she was five points behind Russian Anna Pogorilaya. Pogorilaya led mostly on the heightened difficulty of a triple lutz-triple toe, although it wasn’t an entirely clean one. But Pogorilaya would struggle far more in the free. She wouldn’t rotate the triple lutz-triple toe there, nor her triple loop-loop-triple salchow. She rotated her solo triples, but didn’t land them well, and singled her closing axel. As a result, she lost her lead and tumbled down to the bronze.

The real problem for Asada, an unpredicted one, turned out to be right behind her. Canada’s Kaetlyn Osmond skated clean and with easy confidence and straight level 4s, but only a triple flip-double toe combination. That left her .14 behind Asada. In the free, she had that triple flip-triple toe, if with a weird moment between the jumps. She had an ease of movement and feeling in her program. If her jumps weren’t all clean, outside of some three-jump oddities they were all rotated, so she also had the most technical content. It was enough to nudge ahead of Asada, and she won the gold by a little more than a point.

The other former world champion competing here, Elizaveta Tuktamisheva, had another disappointment. In the short she landed a triple-triple, but it was the relatively easy triple toe-triple, and her jumps, though clean, weren’t the prettiest. In the free, that triple toe-triple toe attempt was just one of four underrotations and two falls. She finished a distant fourth.

Pairs

Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford of Canada perform in the Pairs’ free skating during the figure skating Finlandia Trophy competition in Espoo, Finland, on October 7, 2016. / AFP / Lehtikuva / Roni Rekomaa / Finland OUT (Photo credit should read RONI REKOMAA/AFP/Getty Images)

The pairs, like the men, was a competition noted for the very difficult elements skaters attempted, with mostly messy results. Reigning World Champiosn Meagan Duhamel & Eric Radford had absolutely no one to challenge them here, so they went for hard throws, a triple axel in the short and quad salchow in the free, as well as their usual side by side triple lutzs. None of those went well. Duhamel fell on both throws and singled the lutz in the short, and stepped out of it in the free. Their three-jump didn’t work out either, and their throw triple lutz was wild. They remained safe for gold mainly on their presentation.

In second, Russians Kristina Astakhova & Alexei Rogonov went by side by side triple loops. She fell both times, with the attempt in the short doubled. Those weren’t their only jump mistakes in the free, though she too landed a wild lutz throw. Close behind in third were Germans Mari Vartmann & Ruben Blommaert, although they didn’t have the best skates either.  They too had doubled side by sides in their short, and only toes. In the free, on the other hand, they landed a sequence of triple toes and side by side salchows. But they fell on their their throw lutz, and, more unusually, their split triple twist, and doubled their closing throw salchow.

Dance

Russian’s figure skater winners Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin perform in the ice dance free dance during the figure skating Finlandia Trophy competition in Espoo, Finland, on October 9, 2016. / AFP / Lehtikuva / Martti Kainulainen / Finland OUT (Photo credit should read MARTTI KAINULAINEN/AFP/Getty Images)

The dance event turned out a mild surprise. Going in, the favorites were thought to be the Americans, Madison Hubbell & Zachary Donohue. But they firmly lost both segments to Russians Alexandra Stepanova & Ivan Bukin. It was especially bad in the short, where their technical tariff was three points lower; things were closer in the free. Stepanova & Bukin have always been good to watch on the ice, but this year they’ve come out with a new aggression about them. It showed especially in their sexy short dance, but in their intense tango free dance too. Hubbell & Donohue have gotten mixed reactions to their programs this year. The judges may have objected to their sometimes dubious music choices, although they performed the free especially with real feeling.

Bronze was a surprise Russian win too. But that surprise happened simply because Danish team Laurence Fornier Beaudry & Nikolaj Sorensen, who likely would’ve won it otherwise, were plagued by low levels in their short dance, which left them in fifth despite their good-looking performance. They came back with a third place where they performed with strong energy and precision. But when they held onto their opening lift too long, they barely beat Tiffany Zahorski & Jonathan Guerreiro. Zahorksi & Guerreiro had taken third on the strength of a very sexually charged short dance, and did well enough for themselves in the free, impressing with ambitious lifts even when one of them wasn’t quite pristine. They held on to bronze by nearly three and a half points, and the Danes finished in fourth.

Next: Junior Grand Prix Wraps in Dresden

Full results are available here.