Italy's Carolina Kostner delivered on her potential to establish a solid five-point lead over her nearest rival Akiko Suzuki in the women?s short programme at the ISU Grand Prix Final.
Kostner, who has a long history of inconsistency in pressure situations, executed a picture-perfect performance in the opener, starting with a solid triple-triple toe loop jump combination and triple loop.
She netted 66.43 points to Suzuki?s 61.30. Close behind the Japanese are Russian Alena Leonova (60.46) and defending Grand Prix champion Alissa Czisny, of the United States (60.30).
The tightness of scores should produce an exciting final on Saturday.
Kostner admitted to being "quite nervous" after the six-minute warm-up. "I tried to forget about everything and just do it like I did in practice. I?m very happy to finally have done a short with no mistakes," she said.
Suzuki, who won her first Grand Prix gold in Sapporo last month, executed all but one of her elements with confidence. A shaky landing on her triple flip thwarted her plan to tag a second triple jump onto the first.
Like Kostner, Leonova also showed a triple-triple toe-loop combo to open. Kostner was the bronze medallist at the 2011 world championships, finishing just ahead of Leonova (fourth) and Czisny (fifth).
Suzuki did not earn a berth on her world team last season due to the wealth of talented female skaters in Japan, including Miki Ando, the reigning world champion who chose not to compete this season.
The women?s field was reduced to five competitors with the withdrawal of twice world champion Mao Asada, of Japan. She headed home Thursday after learning her mother was critically ill, and Kyoko Asada died before her daughter returned from Canada.
Three-time world pairs champions from Germany, Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy, will have to come from behind to succeed in their Grand Prix title defence after a stellar showing by Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov gave the Russians the early lead on 71.57 points.
The Germans also skated well except for her stumble out of their throw triple flip. They were lying second on 69.82 behind the fast-rising couple from Russia, who joined forces just 18 months ago.
China?s Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao, who missed all of last season due to his injuries, are third with 63.43 points.
The pairs final is also on Saturday.
In ice dance, Meryl Davis and Charlie White, of the United States, outshone their archrivals and training mates Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, of Canada, in their short dance round.
A shocking spill by Moir left the 2010 Olympic champions with lots of ground to make up on the reigning world champion Americans in Sunday?s final.
Davis and White lead 76.17 to the Canadians' 71.01.
French duo Natalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat are third with 68.68.
Source: AFP Global Edition
