THE CANADIAN PRESS

Stumble Upon

del.icio.us

Digg

Facebook

Print

Email

1 Comment(s)

NAGANO, Japan - Ice dancers Vanessa Crone of Aurora, Ont., and Paul Poirier of Unionville, Ont., sit fourth after Friday's compulsory dance at at the NHK Trophy.

Enlarge Photo

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Koji Sasahara

Ashley Wagner of United State performs during the women's short program.

Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie White lead the ice dance field with 38.09 points, followed by Sinead Kerr and John Kerr of Britain at 35.04 and Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Sololiev of Russia with 31.72.

Crone and Poirier, fourth two weeks ago at the Grand Prix stop in Moscow, earned 30.51 points. Allie Hann-McCurdy of Nanaimo, B.C., and Michael Coreno of Delhi, Ont., are ninth.

In women's singles, Cynthia Phaneuf of Contrecoeur, Que., is seventh at 47.22 after the short program. Ashley Wagner of the U.S., leads at 56.54, Miki Ando of Japan is second at 56.22 and her compatriot Yukari Nakano third at 54.92.

Phaneuf, in her season debut, fell on her triple Lutz.

"The Lutz was a mess," said Phaneuf. "My practices went well all week then I started having trouble with it in warm-up. When I fell on it, it really affected my concentration for the rest of the program.

"It was an unusual situation for me."

In pairs, Mylene Brodeur of Stanbridge-Station, Que., and John Mattatall of Wallace, N.S., are sixth after the short program with 51.10 points. Paige Lawrence of Kennedy, Sask., and Rudi Swiegers of Kipling, Sask., in their senior Grand Prix debut, are seventh at 47.32.

"Apart from missing our throw triple loop we were very pleased with our program," said Brodeur, sixth with her partner in Moscow. "Our short program score was better than in Moscow but there are still some elements such as our lifts we were hoping to score better on."

Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov of Russia are first at 68.90, Qing Pang and Jian Tong of China second at 67.40 and Caydee Denney and Jeremy Barrett of the U.S., third at 55.20.

In men's singles, Vaughn Chipeur of Edmonton and Jeremy Ten of Vancouver are 10th and 12th respectively. Brian Joubert of France leads with Americans Jeremy Abbott and Johnny Weir in second and third.

"My triple Axel was a little off but I fought through the other elements and the rest of the program felt pretty good," said Chipeur.

Wagner opened with a triple flip, double toe loop in a routine to the soundtrack from "Once Upon a Time in America." Her only mistake came on a double Axel that was downgraded, and she finished with 56.54 points. Ando was second with 56.22 points, while Yukari Nakano of Japan was third with 54.92.

"First place is a good place to be but it wasn't my best performance," Wagner said. "My double Axel was downgraded but hopefully I can do it cleanly tomorrow in the long program."

Wagner, who finished second in the Rostelecom Cup, is bidding for a place in the Grand Prix final, which will be held in Tokyo on Dec. 3-6.

Ando, who won the Rostelecom Cup two weeks ago in Russia, fell on her second element - a triple flip - but recovered to keep herself in position for a second Grand Prix title.

"I wasn't pleased with my program today. It was poor from my viewpoint," Ando said. "It wasn't just that I fell but the overall performance wasn't good. I was able to finish second perhaps because of the support of the fans but the result today just wasn't good enough."

Nakano two-footed the landing on a triple lutz and botched her opening combination jump.

"It's a shame I missed that opening combination," Nakano said. "Because other than that I was pleased with the way things went."

Joubert opened his routine with a quadruple toe loop, triple toe loop combination and received 85.55 points. Abbott was second with 83.00 points and Weir was third with 78.35.

"I'm very happy because my first Grand Prix was difficult," said Joubert, who finished fourth at the Trophee Bompard in Paris. "I was very disappointed with the result (in Paris) so it was important for me to get a good result today and for the rest of this competition."

Joubert, the 2007 world champion, stumbled on the landing of a triple Lutz but otherwise skated a clean program.

Daisuke Takahashi of Japan, skating in his first Grand Prix since returning from knee surgery, had a solid performance but made a weak landing on a triple Lutz and fell during a step sequence.

-With files from The Associated Press