Nao Kodaira (JPN) blamed high air pressure for her missing a 500m world record on Friday, but she made amends by skating the fastest ever Ladies 1000m in 1 minute, 12.09 seconds in Salt Lake City on Sunday.
Francesca Lollobrigida (ITA) surprised the pack and herself when she pulled off a breakaway win in the Ladies Mass Start that gives her a clear lead in the World Cup rankings.
Lee Seung-Hoon (KOR) added another Mass Start gold to his tally on Saturday. The 29-year-old Korean edged out Livio Wenger (SUI) and Bart Swings (BEL) in the final sprint, to leave them with silver and gold respectively.
While Nao Kodaira (JPN) rules the Ladies 500m, her compatriot Miho Takagi is queen in the ‘Race of the Kings’. On Saturday in Salt Lake City, Takagi maintained her immaculate record in the 1500m World Cup, taking her fourth gold this season. Marrit Leenstra (NED) and Yekaterina Shikhova (RUS) took silver and bronze respectively.
After falling agonizingly short a week ago, Denis Yuskov (RUS) lived up to expectations and wrote his name in the history books when he skated 1 minute and 41.02 seconds in the 1500m in Salt Lake City to take gold and shave 0.02 seconds off the world record.
In a battle of the Russian giants Ruslan Murashov defeated Pavel Kulizhnikov to win the Men’s 500m in Salt Lake City on Saturday. Dutchmen Kai Verbij and Dai Dai Ntab took silver and bronze.
It was Nao Kodaira (JPN) leading the way yet again in the Ladies 500m on the second day of World Cup racing in Salt Lake City on Saturday. Finishing in 36.54 seconds, she was 0.04 slower than the day before, but the 31-year-old World Champion has clocked the second and third best time ever over 500m this weekend.
Two-time World Champions Gabriella Papadakis/Guillaume Cizeron of France beat Canada’s reigning World Champions Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir for the first time with a new highest total score and took their first Grand Prix Final title as the Ice Dance event concluded at the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final in Nagoya (JPN) Saturday. Three-time World medalists Maia Shibutani/Alex Shibutani (USA) clinched the bronze medal.
Russia’s World Junior Champion Alina Zagitova continued her impressive senior-debut season to confidently win the Ladies event in what was her debut at the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final in Nagoya (JPN) Saturday.
World silver medalists Aljona Savchenko/Bruno Massot of Germany soared to victory setting a new record score in the Free Skating as the Pairs event wrapped up at the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final in Nagoya (JPN) Saturday. Reigning World Champions Wenjing Sui/Cong Han of China moved up one spot to take the silver medal and Canada’s two-time World Champions Meagan Duhamel/Eric Radford pulled up from fourth to claim the bronze.
Russia’s Alexandra Trusova led a Russian sweep of the Junior Ladies podium at the ISU Junior Grand Prix Final in Nagoya (JPN). Alena Kostornaia took the silver and Anastasia Tarankova claimed the bronze medal. All three Ladies competed in their first Junior Final.
Russia’s Anastasia Skoptcova/Kirill Aleshin danced off with the gold medal as the ISU Junior Grand Prix Final continued in Nagoya (JPN) on Saturday.
Further to the IOC Executive Board decision of 5 December 2017 with regards to the Russian participation at the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018
The Canadian men made amends on Friday for their crash in the Team Pursuit in front of a home crowd in Calgary last week. Ted-Jan Bloemen, Denny Morrison and Benjamin Donnelly (CAN) won the Team Pursuit in Salt Lake City in a national record of 3 minutes and 36.44 seconds.
It does not seem to matter who skates for Japan alongside Miho and Nana Takagi in the Ladies Team Pursuit. As long as the sisters take the ice, it’s world record time.