11/06/2026 08:27:00
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11/06 08:25 CST Olympic champ Shaidorov 5th as Miura leads figure skating Cup
of China
Olympic champ Shaidorov 5th as Miura leads figure skating Cup of China
SHENZHEN, China (AP) --- Olympic gold medalist Mikhail Shaidorov's uneasy start
to the new figure skating season continued Friday as an improved performance
was only good enough for fifth place at the Cup of China.
Instead, it was another improving skater who took the lead as Kao Miura
delivered a clean short program featuring two high-scoring quadruple jumps to
score 102.90.
That was 30 more than the erratic short which placed him ninth in the Grand
Prix opener in France two weeks earlier, before he bounced back in the free
skate for silver.
Miura's Japanese teammate Shun Sato is second on 101.97, with Russian Evgeni
Semenenko, competing as a neutral athlete, third on 99.72.
Shaidorov of Kazakhstan avoided the falls that troubled him in France last
month, but stepped out on the landing of his opening quad lutz on his way to a
score of 94.87.
Chiba leads and Ignatova returns
World silver medalist Mone Chiba led the way in the women's short program as
Russian Alexandra Ignatova made a long-awaited return to the figure skating
Grand Prix series.
Chiba took the lead on 76.08 points with her James Bond-themed program, despite
an error on a double axel, in her first skate since the world championships in
March following an offseason ankle injury.
It was just enough to keep Chiba ahead of Anastasiia Gubanova of Georgia, who
celebrated a personal-best 75.05 with a double fist pump as her score was
announced.
Ignatova, skating as a neutral athlete, was third on 72.37 in her biggest
international event since the 2022 Olympics. The 17-year-old Alexandra Trusova
who raged rinkside at her silver medal in 2022 is now 22, competing under her
married name, and mother to a one-year-old son.
The International Skating Union has approved neutral athletes from Russia and
Belarus to enter a wider range of events this season after they were only
eligible to enter the Olympics and one Olympic qualifier last season.
British team leads ice dance
Britain's Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson lead the way in ice dance after scoring
80 points in the rhythm dance to beat Georgia's Diana Davis and Gleb Smolkin on
79.31. Natalie Taschlerova and Filip Taschler of the Czech Republic are a
distant third on 73.10.
Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov, Russians competing as neutrals, have
a big lead in pairs with 74.69. European champions Anastasiia Metelkina and
Luka Berulava are second on 67.06 after dropping valuable points when a spin
was ruled invalid. Karina Akopova and Nikita Rakhmanin are third for Armenia on
66.34.
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