Anna Cappellini/Luca Lanotte (ITA) clinch lead in Short Dance
Anna Cappellini/Luca Lanotte of Italy clinched a narrow lead in the Short Dance, edging out Canadians Kaitlyn Weaver/Andrew Poje by less than one point. France’s Nathalie Pechalat/Fabian Bourzat follow closely in third place.
Cappellini/Lanotte’s Quickstep and Foxtrot to “42nd Street” and “Lullaby of Broadway” was highlighted by fast twizzles, smooth steps and a rotational lift.
The European Champions picked up a level four for the twizzles, the first Finnstep pattern and the lift to score 69.70 points, just below their seasons best.”We're really happy especially because it's the last time we're dancing this dance and we were able to pull out the best performance of the year; also scorewise. It couldn't have happened at a better time than at the world championships and we're really going to miss this program”, Cappellini said.
Weaver/Poje had also chosen “42nd Street” for their Short Dance. Their twizzles and curve lift merited a level four, the Finnstep sequences and the side by side footwork a level three.
The Canadians earned 69.20 points. “I feel like we’ve worked so hard this season. Obviously it is showing in the results today. In our free dance, I feel that it is our secret weapon. So wherever the chips fall we are going to put out a strong free dance tomorrow and let everything else take care of itself”, Weaver explained.
Dancing to “Roxy”, “Sing Sing Sing” and “Mein Herr”, Pechalat/Bourzat produced a level four Finnstep sequence and level four rotational lift, but the second Finnstep pattern was a level two and the two-time European Champions received 68.20 points. “We are not a 100 percent happy with this performance.
We skated much better at the Olympics. We had two little mistakes and hopefully we’ll skate stronger tomorrow”, Pechalat said. “We thought to end our career in Japan is a good idea because we want to get a beautiful medal before leaving.
We did not get a medal in Sochi”, she added. Madison Chock/Evan Bates (USA) are not far behind at 67.11 points. Olympic bronze medalists Elena Ilinykh/Nikita Katsalapov (RUS) are currently ranked fifth as he missed the twizzles (65.67 points). Maia Shibutani/Alex Shibutani (USA) finished sixth (63.55 points).
