Morisi Kvitelashvili claims first Grand Prix win at Rostelecom Cup

Georgia's Morisi Kvitelashvili took victory in the ISU Grand Prix Rostelecom Cup in Sochi, Russia on Saturday (27 November).

In the final event of the Grand Prix regular season, the 25-year-old overcame an under-rotation and a fall on a quad toe loop to take third in the free skate and move up from second overnight.

Short program winner Tomono Kazuki's jumping let him down meaning he had to settle for third place behind Mikhail Kolyada who had the best free skate on the day.

Just 2.14 points separated the top three with Kvitelashvili totalling 266.33, a big personal best, Kolyada 264.64 and Tomoni 264.19.

Kvitelashvili said afterwards, "First of all, I would like to congratulate the other medallists, it was a great fight today. I tried and fought today. Not everything worked out but I am still pleased.

Kolyada's second place saw him qualify for next month's Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final with Jason Brown also making the six-strong field for Osaka.

Kvitelashvili was out of contention after only finishing sixth at Skate Canada.

Men's Singles Grand Prix Final qualifiers: Vincent Zhou (USA), Uno Shoma (JPN), Nathan Chen (USA), Kagiyama Yuma (JPN), Mikhail Kolyada (RUS), Jason Brown (USA).

Lying fourth after the short program, Mikhail Kolyada fell on his opening quad Salchow, and had a hand down and a step on a quad toe, but managed to regroup to put together a fine free skate.

A quad toe loop-triple toe loop combination was the highlight as the Russian, who won team silver at PyeongChang 2018 and the World Team Trophy title this year, scored 180.16 gave him a total of 264.64 for the lead and fourth place at the very least.

That was enough to see him into next month's Grand Prix Final, after his second place in the Gran Premio d'Italia, with Jason Brown also qualifying.

On making Osaka, he said, "I think it will be interesting because I love Japan and I love performing there, the audience there is brilliant. We will think with my coach (Alexei Mishin) and we have a few new ideas for the upcoming competition which we will try to realise."

Canada's Roman Sadovsky was unable to displace Kolyada despite posting a personal best score of 169.21 in the free skate.

While his jumping was far from foot-perfect, this was an excellent effort from the 22-year-old who went second overall on 253.80 with two skaters to come.

Skating to a medley of Frank Sinatra songs, Kvitelashvili was largely solid and the crowd was completely engaged in his skate.

The Georgian, who trains in Moscow with the Sambo-70 Crystal school of Eteri Tutberidze, Sergei Dudakov, and Daniil Gleikhengauz, produced a second personal best in consecutive days - a 170.96 in the free skate - to take over at the top of the leaderboard.

Tomono had an advantage of less than half a point from the short program, and a couple of under-rotations and a fall on a late triple Axel cost him victory.

It was a superbly artistic interpretative skate to the La La Land soundtrack, including a dazzling closing choreo sequence, but the 23-year-old Japanese surprisingly received a lower program component score (PCS) than Kvitelashvili.

He also had the crowd on his side and smiled broadly at the end of the routine, despite his jumping errors, and earned 168.38 for fifth in the free skate.

That was enough to keep him on the podium as he matched his third place from this competition in 2018.

He told Olympics.com, "Being on the podium I am still disappointed in myself. I didn't expect this emotion. I guess it's because yesterday I was in the lead, and I felt in myself I had a possibility to be on top. But I guess the nerves kicked in, and I made some mistakes. Experience is helping me to keep calm in general."

After a disappointing short program, Matteo Rizzo bounced back with a wonderfully expressive skate to The Irrepressibles' Two Men In Love.

Italy's 2019 European bronze medallist and Winter Universiade winner tripled what should have been an opening quad toe loop, but he then landed the jump in combination with another triple toe loop, and hit his triple Axel.

His interpretation of the music was rewarded with high PCS and he scored 173.02, second in the free skate, for a total of 250.47 and fifth place.

Evgeni Semenenko looked on track for a high score but his jumping deserted him midway through his routine with successive falls on a triple Axel and triple flip.

His score of 165.66 left him on 264.66 overall, just behind Rizzo, in sixth place.

Camden Pulkinen hit the deck on his opening jump, a quad toe loop, but the American recovered well and landed two triple Axels on his way to a score of 154.50 and 237.97 overall for seventh place.

Czech veteran Michal Brezina, the only man in the field who competed in this Iceberg Skating Palace venue at the 2014 Sochi Games, fell on his opening quad Salchow and triple Axel.

He scored 137.28 for a total of 219.59 and 10th place.

The 31-year-old told Olympics.com he had recently started working with a mental coach and said, "I feel more confident in practice, I feel more confident in the competition, but I just can't control my impulses sometimes.

"I'm hoping that by the time the Olympics come, it's going to be at a different level and I'm going to be able to take what I can do in practice and really just transform it into competition."

Sinitsina/Katsalapov take ice dance despite lift mishap

Russia’s Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov completed their second Grand Prix victory of the season having led after Friday’s rhythm dance.

The reigning world champions skated smoothly to a Rachmaninov medley although Katsalapov almost fell on the exit to the stationary lift.

They scored 124.91 in their free dance for a total of 211.72, eight points clear of Italy’s Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri whose second place saw them qualify for next month’s Grand Prix Final.

Canadian duo Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Sørensen, who feature in the new Olympics.com series On Edge, finished third with 191.40.

Katsalapov called the lift error "unexpected" and said, "I wanted to land Vika from the lift carefully and softly on her feet but maybe I overdid it, I don't really know. It's the very first time it's happened in this specific element. It can all be fixed.

"The issue is that we have deductions in both lifts, our coaches told us this morning. I can say I am not really satisfied with today's skate but it's also an experience and I am not going to get upset about it. Many things were better today than in Japan. A lot of programs still need to be worked on before the Olympic season."

Sinitsina added, "We have a little time before the Grand Prix Final to work on that mistake and to improve everything. We would love to go to the final motivated and in a great mood."

Sinitsina and Katsalapov will go up against join four-time world champions Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron in Osaka.

Ice Dance Grand Prix Final qualifiers: Victoria Sinitsina/Nikita Katsalapov (RUS), Gabriella Papadakis/Guillaume Cizeron (FRA), Madison Hubbell/Zachary Donohue (USA), Piper Gilles/Paul Poirier (CAN), Madison Chock/Evan Bates (USA), Charlene Guignard/Marco Fabbri (ITA).

World champs Mishina/Galliamov bounce back to win pairs

Reigning world pairs champions Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov were back to their best as they took victory on home ice.

They trailed fellow Russians Daria Pavliuchenko and Denis Khodykin after a sub-par score by their high standards but, apart from a slight jumping error from Mishina on a side-by-side triple Salchow-Euler-triple Salchow combination, they were close to flawless in their skate to The Snowstorm by Georgi Sviridov.

Their throw jumps were particularly strong with a throw triple loop near the end prompting loud cheers from the crowd.

They scored 153.34, just 0.03 off their career best set at this year's Finlandia Trophy, for a total of 226.98, and their second Grand Prix win out of two this season.

Pavliuchenko and Khodykin were last to go and actually managed a career-high score free skate of 138.68, but had to settle for their second runner-up finish of the campaign with 212.59 which saw them join their compatriots in the Grand Prix Final.

Mishina said afterwards, "Today everything worked out much better than yesterday. There was anger at ourselves from yesterday. We wanted to make everything clean and prove to ourselves that yesterday was just an accident."

Iasmina Kadyrova and Ivan Balchenko made it a Russian podium sweep with a career-best total of 193.58.

Pairs Grand Prix Final qualifiers: Anastasia Mishina/Aleksandr Galliamov (RUS), Sui Wenjing/Han Cong (CHN), Evgenia Tarasova/Vladimir Morozov (RUS), Aleksandra Boikova/Dmitri Kozlovskii (RUS), Daria Pavliuchenko/Denis Khodykin (RUS), Miura Riku/Kihara Ryuichi (JPN).