Canadians Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon dominated the original dance portion Friday to retain their lead in the ice dance competition at the NHK Trophy. (AP Photo/Katsumi Kasahara)
Canadians Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon dominated the original dance portion Friday to retain their lead in the ice dance competition at the NHK Trophy.
The Canadians, performing to the tango rhythm in the original dance portion, had an overall score of 98.51, scoring 60.23 for the second of three segments.
Dubreuil, from Montreal, and Lauzon, from Boisbriand, Que., have changed their original dance since their victory at Skate Canada in Victoria in October.
"They said the music was too lyrical," Dubreuil said. "You couldn't really hear the beats."
"So we decided to start from scratch and use music that has a lot more beats."
The free dance is Saturday.
Dubreuil and Lauzon, silver medallists at the world championships in Calgary in March, failed to finish at the Olympics after Dubreuil fell heavily during the original dance there.
Jana Khokhlova and Sergei Novitski of Russia lead a tight contest for second at Nagano over Americans Melissa Gregory and Denis Petukhov with 88.81 points to 88.18.
Canadians finished third and fourth in the pairs as former world champions Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo defeated fellow Chinese pair Zhang Dan and Zhang Haoto win the event.
Valerie Marcoux of Gatineau, Que., and Craig Buntin of Kelowna, B.C., were third, ahead of Utako Wakamatsu and Jean-Sebastien Fecteau of St-Leonard, Que.
"We have had a couple injuries the last few weeks and we were not able to do all the training we wanted," Buntin said. "We fought from the beginning to end of that program.
"To be able to get on the ice and go through the program and not make any huge mistakes, we are very satisfied with what we have done today."
Mao Asada used an elegant short program to take the lead in Friday's women's short program, ahead of two other Japanese skaters looking for berths in the Grand Prix final.
Fumie Suguri and Yukari Nakano were second and third. Only two of the three Japanese skaters will qualify for this month's final at St. Petersburg, Russia.
Lesley Hawker of Barrie, Ont., was 10th.
Asada needs a win to have a chance of defending her title. She won last year's Grand Prix final but was not eligible for the Olympics because she was too young and comes in with just a third-place finish from Skate America.
After looking so good in the short program there, she faltered in her trademark triple Axel and several other jumps.
In the short program, she established a personal best score, skating to Chopin's "Noctune", with exquisite spins, jumps and footwork.
Her spins had unusual variations, such as grabbing her foot in a near sit spin and raised upright while still holding her boot.
She easily completed her triple lutz-triple loop combination and scored bonus points with her double Axel to score a personal best of 69.50 points.
Asada did triple Axels last year as a 15-year-old, but faltered when trying it in the free program at Skate America. She said the poor performance was due to her missing the triple Axel at the start.
"I would like to do the triple Axel again," Asada, who is now coached by Rafael Arutunian, who coached Michelle Kwan. "I think if I do it, the rest of the program will go well."
Suguri and Nakano have seconds from Skate Canada and the Cup of China respectively. Suguri is second with 61.92 points while Nakano is third at 56.86.
With the top three positions worth 15, 13 and 11 points, it will come down to whatever way the Japanese finish to see who qualifies for St. Petersburg. The top six scorers from the season in each event qualify for the final.
"I don't think about the pressure but I do want to go to the Grand Prix final," Asada said. "If I think about it too much I will get nervous."
The NHK Trophy is being held in the city that staged the 1998 Winter Olympics at the Big Hat Arena, site of the Olympic ice hockey events. The 2002 world championships were also held in Nagano, but at the M-Wave rink, venue of the Olympic speed skating.
Source:Hindustanis.org
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