Kevin Aymoz took gold in the men’s singles discipline at the Skate Canada International on Oct. 31 after a semi-clean short program and free skate.
Aymoz finished second in the short and free which was good enough for first since second place Rio Nakata, who led after the short program, had the fourth best free skate despite no major blunders.
Nakata’s only blunder came in the short program which didn’t do much since he led by over two points due to his clean quad-salchow, triple toe combo which netted him 17.09 points.
Estonia’s Mihhail Selevko rounded out the podium, rebounding from the fifth-best short program to the best free skate. Selevko’s short was docked due to popping his quad-salchow, which would’ve given him a minimum of 9.70 points if landed clean but instead netted him zero points.
Finishing just outside of the podium was Stephen Gogolev who jumped eight spots from 12th after the short program to fourth after the free skate. His bad placing in the short was due to popping his quad-salchow and his quad-lutz, triple-toe combo which only scored him a total of 1.30 points instead of a minimum of 25.4 points if both were landed cleanly.
The highest placing American in the men’s singles category was Liam Kapeikis who finished 10th in the short, 12th in the free and 12th overall. Kapeikis struggled with his triple-axel and triple-lutz, triple-toe combo in the short program and triple-axel, triple-loop, triple-lutz and triple-axel, triple-toe combo in the free skate.
In women’s singles, Mao Shimada put on two outstanding performances in the short and free, finishing first in both events. Her free skate was especially impressive, landing a quad toe and triple axel which netted her 17.58 points overall.
Following her was Niina Petrokina who moved up one place after the free skate. Petrokina also skated clean in both events with her triple-lutz, triple-toe and triple-flip, double-axel, double-axel combos netting her 24.52 points in her free skate.
The final podium spot went to American Isabeau Levito who finished second in the short program but sixth in the free skate. Levito’s free skate was relatively clean outside of falling on her triple-flip, euler, triple-salchow, double-axel combo and popping her triple-lutz which cost her a minimum of 19.5 points if landed cleanly.
Levito’s clean short program was good for a personal best though and despite the issues on her free skate, she nearly set a personal best on her overall score, coming just 3.52 points short the score she set at the 2022 MK John Wilson Trophy.
Finishing just off the podium was Saki Miyake who placed fourth in both the short program and free skate. Miyake had a clean short and a relatively clean free which saw her get personal bests in her short, free and overall scores.
In the pairs category, Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov finished in second for the United States. They placed second in the short and third in the free for a total score of 191.90.
The pair skated relatively clean in both the short and free, with their only blips being on their triple-salchow in the short program and their triple-toe and triple-salchow, double-axel combo in the free skate.
In Ice Dance, Caroline Green and Michael Parsons came home with the bronze medal while Oona and Gage Brown finished fourth and Katarina Wolfkostin and Dimitry Tsarevski finished sixth for the US.
In the Rhythm Dance, all three American Ice Dance couples skated clean with Green and Parsons finishing third, Brown and Brown finishing fourth and Wolfkostin and Tsarevski finishing sixth.
In the Free Dance, all three couples skated clean once again with Green and Parsons, Brown and Brown and Wolfkostin and Tsarevski again finishing third, fourth and sixth respectively.
This weekend is the Cup of China from Nov. 6 to Nov. 8 in Shenzhen, China.
For the Cup of China, Ice Dance starts off the weekend with the Rhythm Dance at 1:45 a.m. EST on Friday Nov. 6. Following that is the Women’s Short Program at 3:25 a.m. and the Pairs Short Program at 6 a.m. The last event on Friday is the Men’s Short Program at 7:25 a.m.
On Saturday, Nov. 7, Ice Dance once again leads off at 1:30 a.m. EST followed by the Women’s Free Skate at 3:30 a.m. Following the Women’s Free Skate, the Pairs Free Skate will take place at 5:40 a.m.
Finally, the weekend will be wrapped up on Nov. 8 at 12:00 a.m. when the Men’s Free Skate takes place.
The top men skating this weekend are Evgeni Semenenko, Yudong Chen, Nika Egadze, Kao Miura, Mikhail Shaidorov and Vladimir Samoilov. There are also Lucius Kazanecki and Jacob Sanchez competing for the US as well.
The top women skating are Alexandra Ignatova, Olga Mikutina, Anastasiia Gubanova, Lara Naki Gutmann, Mone Chiba and Haein Lee. For the US there is also Alina Bonillo and Sophie Joline Von Felton competing as well.
In pairs, Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Gallaimov, Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava, Yuna Nagaoka and Sumitada Moriguchi, Karina Akopova and Nikita Rakhmanin and Jiaxuan Zhang and Yihang Huang are the top skaters while Chelsea Liu and Ryan Bedard and Valentina Plazas and Maximiliano Fernandez are skating for the US.
Finally, in Ice Dance, Natalie Taschlerova and Filip Taschler, Olivia Smart and Tim Dieck, Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson, Yufei Lin and Zijian Gao and Junfei Ren and Jianing Xing are the top skaters while Eva Pate and Logan Bye and Emily Bratti and Ian Somerville are skating for the US.
American viewers can watch the Cup of China on Peacock or the ISU YouTube Channel for the men’s and women’s singles, pairs and ice dance events.