(November 5, 2005)
The Canadian pair team of Jessica Dubé and Bryce Davison made a good impression at the 2005 Cup of China, placing fourth overall in a strong pair event.
Dubé and Davison, the 2004 Canadian Junior Pair Champions who were forced to withdraw from the senior pair event at last year's BMO Financial Group Canadian Championships due to injury, were in fourth-place following an impressive performance in Thursday evening's short program.
They picked up right where they left off in the free program, improving many of their elements since their first ISU Grand Prix event, the 2005 Smart Ones Skate America in Atlantic City, N.J. Dubé and Davison, whose program highlights included a double Axel-double toe loop sequence, a throw triple Salchow, a throw triple loop and strong overhead lifts, earned a score of 53.36 for technical elements and 50.96 for program components, bringing their total segment score for the free skate to 104.32. Combined with their score from the short program, the duo earned a combined total of 157.48 points for the event, surpassing their Skate America total by over five points.
Capturing the gold medal were Russians Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov, who were just coming off a silver medal performance at the 2005 MasterCard Skate Canada International. Their winning point total was 185.38. The Chinese team of Qing Pang and Jian Tong entertained the hometown crowd with a second-place finish after earning 176.46 points, while Dorota Zagorska and Mariusz Siudek, of Poland, won the bronze medal with 162.48 points.
Moving up to third after the original dance were Canada's Megan Wing and Aaron Lowe. Wing and Lowe, who were fourth behind the Italian team of Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali following the compulsory dance, skated a wonderful Latin combination original dance to the music of Tito Puente, Juan Gabriel and Ricky Martin.
"We skated it (the original dance) really well, so we're really happy with it," said Wing. "I think we skated it better than at Skate America."
Lowe was also pleased with the team's performance.
"We made some changes after Skate America. To be able to execute them after one week of making the changes was good," he said.
Wing and Lowe earned 26.40 points for technical elements and 24.21 for program components for a total segment score of 50.61. The Vancouverites' combined total with the compulsory dance is 82.19. Two-time world champions Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov are the current leaders with 95.33 points, and the Israeli team of Galit Chait and Sergei Sakhnovski are third with 90.04.
Coming off a gold medal win at the 2005 MasterCard Skate Canada International, Canada's Emanuel Sandhu currently stands fourth following the short program after popping the planned quadruple toe loop of his combination into a double to complete a double toe loop-triple toe loop combination. Sandhu went on to complete a solid triple Axel, and two-footed the triple Lutz. He also increased the level of difficulty of his straight-line footwork sequence since the event in St. John's.
Sandhu was awarded 28.60 points for technical elements and 36.50 for program components, giving him a total segment score of 65.10. His program components score tied him with 2005 world champion Stephane Lambiel for the highest program components score of the evening.
Canada's Ben Ferreira completed a triple Lutz-double toe loop combination and a triple Axel to stand sixth with 62.83 points.
Russia's Andrei Griazev is first after the short program with 71.00 points. Chengjiang Li, of China, is second with 70.25, while Switzerland's Lambiel is third with 70.20.
The 2005 Cup of China wraps up on Saturday with the ladies' free skate, the free dance and the men's free skate.