Mone Chiba and Kao Miura took gold in the men’s and women’s singles disciplines at the annual figure skating competition Cup of China on Nov. 6-8, 2026. Following them on the podium was Vladislav Dikidzhi and Evgeni Semenenko for the men and Alexandra Ignatova and Haein Lee for the women.
Chiba finished first in the short and second in the free which gave her a three-point advantage over Ignatova in the end. Chiba’s only major blunder was in the short program, when she stepped out on her double-axel.
Ignatova came in second and scored just 3.21 points off Chiba after the free skate. Ignatova skated clean in both programs, including landing her quad-lutz in the free, but the difference to Chiba came in the Program Component’s where Chiba earned 104.05 total PC points while Ignatova earned 98.28 PC points.
That difference was partly negated by Ignatova’s 4.89 advantage in the free due to her quad-lutz. Despite a valiant effort, Ignatova still ended with the silver.
South Korea’s Haein Lee rounded out the podium, rebounding from the sixth-best short program to the third-best free skate. Lee’s short was because she popped her triple-lutz, but she finished the combo with a triple-toe which salvaged some points despite the 2.1-point deduction.
Finishing just outside of the podium was Anastasia Gubanova, who fell from second after the short to fourth after the free. Gubanova lost points on the free due to quartering her triple-loop and both double-axels in her triple-lutz, double-axel, double-axel combo while also under-rotating her triple-salchow.
The highest placing American in the women’s singles category was Sophie Joline von Felten who finished ninth in the short, sixth in the free and seventh overall. Meanwhile, the other American, Alina Bonillo, finished in 12th after a 10th place short program and 12th place free skate.
In men’s singles, Miura had an excellent short and free program, taking first place in both events and winning with ease. Miura’s free skate was especially impressive, netting 48.37 points on his top three jumps or combos.
Following him was Dikidzhi, who moved up two places after the free skate. Dikidzhi’s only mistake in the free was a step out on his quad-lutz to open the program, but he skated clean on every other element.
The bronze medal went to Semenenko, who skated to third place in both the short, free and overall. Semenenko skated to a clean short program but an under-rotated quad-loop and an uneven landing on his quad-salchow left just over two points on the board. If he landed smoothly, he could have moved up to second place.
Finishing just off the podium was Japan’s Shun Sato, who placed second in the short but fourth in the free. Sato didn’t have any blunders in the short or the free, but his technical content wasn’t on par with the skaters ahead which hindered his ceiling.
The highest placing American in men’s singles was Jacob Sanchez in 11th followed by Lucius Kazanecki in 12th. Both skaters made mistakes in the short and free due to their lack of senior experience; this is their first season at the senior international level.
Both Sanchez and Kazanecki are very talented young skaters, and as time goes on and they get more senior experience, their quality will get better as the pressure starts to dissipate.
In the pairs category, Chelsea Liu and Ryan Bedard finished in fifth for the United States, while Valentina Plazas and Maximiliano Fernandez finished right behind them in sixth. Liu and Bedard have the fifth-best short and free while Plazas and Fernandez have the sixth-best short and seventh-best free.
In ice dance, Emily Bratti and Ian Somerville finished in sixth while Eva Pate and Logan Bye finished in seventh.
Both Bratti and Somerville and Pate and Bye finished the same in the rhythm dance as they free dance. Bratti and Somerville took home sixth in both while Pate and Bye took seventh in both.
Skate America will be held from Nov. 13 to Nov. 15 in Everett, Washington.
For Skate America, the men’s short program starts off the weekend at 10:03 p.m. EST on Friday, Nov. 13 while the pairs short program takes place right after at 11:50 p.m.
On Saturday, Nov. 14, the rhythm dance leads off at 5:03 p.m. EST followed by the women’s short program at 6:42 p.m. The men’s free skate will start at 9:25 p.m. before the pairs free skate finishes off the night, commencing at 11:34 p.m.
Finally, the weekend wraps up on Nov. 15 with the free dance at 2:10 p.m. and the women’s free skate at 4:05 p.m. EST.
The top men skating this weekend are the U.S.’ Ilia Malinin and Jason Brown, as well as Aleksandr Selevko, Daniel Grassl, Lukas Britschgi and Georgii Reshtenko. Daniel Martynov will also be skating at Skate America for the United States as well.
The top women skating are Ignatova, Adeliia Petrosian, Ami Nakai and Sofia Samodelkina. For the US there is also Alexa Gasparotto, Logan Higase-Chen and von Felton competing as well.
In pairs, the United States has three couples skating, that being Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov, Katie McBeath and Balázs Nagy and Audrey Shin and Spencer Akira Howe.
Finally, in ice dance, Leah Neset and Artem Markelov, Katarina Wolfkostin and Dimitry Tsarevski and Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik are skating for the United States.
American viewers can watch Skate America on Peacock for the men’s and women’s singles, pairs and ice dance events.