by Madison Chock and Evan Bates won the NHK Trophy, while Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko took second place for the first American double in ice dancing at a Grand Prix other than Skate America.
Chock, 32, and Bates, 35, extended their ice dancing records with a 25th career Grand Prix podium and qualification for their ninth Grand Prix final.
The two-time reigning world champions have achieved 20 consecutive regular season Grand Prix podiums (dating back to 2013) with 18 consecutive top-two finishes.
Their total score at NHK Tokyo – 215.95 – ranks first in the world this season. Chock and Bates bounced back from a second-place finish at Skate America three weeks ago that included a fall in their rhythm dance, which ended an eight-game winning streak dating back to early 2023.
FIGURE SKATING: Release schedule
The NHK marked the fourth stop in the annual series of six Grand Prix of figure skating. In the series, each of the world’s best skaters compete twice, with the top six per discipline over the course of the series qualifying for the December Grand Prix Final. During the final, the best skaters in the world come together for the first time this season.
Chock and Bates’ competition in the final will likely include the two couples with whom they shared the podium at the last two world championships: Italians Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri and Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, whom they do not. faced neither Skate America nor NHK.
Carreira and Ponomarenko have a chance to compete in their first Grand Prix final after their second place at NHK, the best Grand Prix result of their careers and their first Grand Prix podium since their debut season on the circuit in 2018. They will likely need to finish in the top two of the Cup of China in two weeks to qualify for the final.
Carreira and Ponomarenko won silver at last season’s U.S. Championships and finished seventh at the World Championships last March.
Carreira, 24, was born in Montreal, and at last season’s world championships, she was still seeking U.S. citizenship to become eligible for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics. Ponomarenko, 23, has parents 1992 Olympic ice dancing gold medalists Marina Klimova and Sergei Ponomarenko.
Also at NHK, three-time world champion Kaori Sakamoto led the Japanese women’s podium to win her fifth consecutive Grand Prix title and advance to the final. She collected 231.88 points, the best world score since her first world title in 2022.
Two-time U.S. champions Alysa Liu and Bradie Tennell finished fourth and fifth, respectively.
Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama, an Olympic and world silver medalist, won the men’s event in his Grand Prix season debut. In Saturday’s free skate, Kagiyama fell on his first quadruple flip, then landed three flawless quadruples.
His total score – 300.09 points – keeps him second in the world this season behind world champion Ilia Malinin, whom he will likely face in the Grand Prix Final.
In pairs, Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava of Georgia overtook 2023 world champions Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan in the free skate for their first Grand Prix title (and podium).
American champions Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea held on to third place despite falling on both free skates, three weeks after finishing second at Skate America. They will likely qualify for their first Grand Prix Final, pending the results of the next two Grand Prix events.
The Grand Prix Series continues next week in Finland, live Peacock starting Friday.
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Results of the NHK Figure Skating Trophy 2024
Women
1. Kaori Sakamoto (JPN) — 231.88
2. Mone Chiba (JPN) – 212.54
3. Yuna Aoki (JPN) – 195.07
4. Alysa Liu (United States) – 190.75
5. Bradie Tennell (USA) – 190.25
6. Lara Naki Gutmann (ITA) – 180.28
7. Wi Seo-Yeong (KOR) – 173.77
8. Olga Mikutina (AUT) — 169.93
9. Lindsay Thorngren (USA) – 169.03
10. Ekaterina Kukarova (POL) – 165.84
11. Niina Petrokina (EST) – 157.14
12. Kim Ye-Lim (KOR) – 152.84
Men
1. Yuma Kagiyama (JPN) – 300.09
2. Daniel Grassl (ITA) – 264.85
3. Tatsuya Tsuboi (JPN) — 251.52
4. Andrew Torgashev (USA) – 246.58
5. Matteo Rizzo (ITA) – 246.56
6. Kao Miura (JPN) – 240.38
7. Jason Brown (USA) – 229.09
8. Tomoki Hiwatashi (United States) – 226.38
9. Vladimir Litvintsev (AZE) – 225.67
10. Gabriele Frangipanier (ITA) – 223.82
11. Mark Gorodnitsky (ISR) — 215.76
12. Lim Ju-Heon (KOR) – 196.05
Pairs
1. Anastasiia Metelkina/Luka Berulava (GEO) — 213.05
2. Riku Miura/Ryuichi Kihara (JPN) – 209.45
3. Ellie Kam/Danny O’Shea (United States) – 197.44
4. Annika Hocke/Robert Kunkel (GER) – 188.54
5. Daria Danilova/Michel Tsiba (NED) — 178.37
6. Anastasia Vaipan-Law/Luke Digby (GBR) – 174.45
7. Yuna Nagaoka/Sumitada Moriguchi (JPN) — 172.47
8. Isabelle Martins/Ryan Bédard (United States) — 140.63
Ice dancing
1. Madison Chock/Evan Bates (United States) – 215.95
2. Christina Carreira/Anthony Ponomarenko (United States) – 198.97
3. Allison Reed/Saulius Ambrulevicius (LTU) – 195.52
4. Caroline Green/Michael Parsons (United States) – 188.76
5. Loïcia Demougeot/Théo le Mercier (FRA) — 178.30
6. Yuka Orihara/Juho Pirinen (FIN) – 175.28
7. Jennifer Janse van Rensburg/Benjamin Steffan (GER) – 173.36
8. Marie Dupayge/Thomas Nabais (FRA) — 165.80
9. Utana Yoshida/Masaya Morita (JPN) — 161.36
10. Azusa Tanaka/Shingo Nishiyama (JPN) – 151.27
Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea take a chance figure skating duo to the highest level
U.S. champions Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea eye rare international success for a U.S. duo team.
