Lopareva and Brissaud bag surprise gold in Angers
2024 Grand Prix de France | Ice Dance
France’s Evgeniia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud bagged a surprise gold in Ice Dance at 2024 Grand Prix de France in Angers on Saturday. Headliners Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri of Italy settled for silver, while USA’s Emily Bratti and Ian Somerville rose from fourth to pocket the bronze—their first Grand Prix medal.
Evgeniia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud
France’s Evgeniia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud improved their rhythm dance from Skate Canada by one point for second place (77.75). While the 2024 Skate Canada bronze medalist received a one-point deduction for a time violation, they showed a difficult entry into their level-four twizzles. However, the unique stationary lift only received a level three, leaving more points on the table. The pattern steps were also a level three, a level higher than last week in Halifax.
“We felt really good today!” said Lopareva. “The audience was so loud and cheered like crazy, so that was super nice. We got a time violation; that’s a bit frustrating.”
When asked about the music, Lopareva said: “We first of all wanted to skate to something by Brigitte Bardot, but she didn’t have something that was enough uplifting for us. Then Romain (Haguenauer) suggested this piece. We know it’s a bit risky, but I am Russian, so why not? So far people seem to like it.”
The two-time national champions produced an inventive free dance to music by BFRND which featured very good level-four twizzles, lifts and spin. The midline steps were particularly good, earning high GOEs. The one-foot steps also earned a level three, and they placed first in the free dance and overall (117.52/195.27).
“It feels great to have achieved our first Grand Prix win here in France,” said Brissaud. “We didn’t expect to win here.”
“I am speechless and a bit shocked about today’s result,” added Lopareva. “We wanted to fight for the Final this season and achieving it now just feels amazing. And the fact that it’s going to be in France makes it even more special!”
The team had a techno program last season for their show program and was very popular on social media. There were also comments on making it a competition program; that their usual programs often looked a bit “boring” while the exhibitions were more fun.
“This is why we tried this style for our competition program,” said Lopareva of the free dance. “Of course we need to take risks. We are not world champions. We want to keep improving and we think in order to do that you have to take some risks.”
They now have 26 points in the Grand Prix Final standings.
Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri
Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri of Italy produced very good level-four twizzles in their fun rhythm dance, earning +3 grades of execution (GOE) across the board. The rotational lift was also a level four, while the pattern steps were a level two and the midline a two and three. The 2024 World bronze medalists placed first in this segment with 82.80 points.
“We worked on a lot of things and little details,” said Fabbri. “Even though there were some mistakes today, we felt like everything is under control today. That is always a very important step in the season.”
“It is always very nice to skate here,” he added. “The atmosphere is great and welcoming. Charlene is French and knows a lot of people here, so that is always very nice.”
The two-time European champions were off to a good start in their robot-themed free dance. The team earned a level four on the straightline-rotational lifts and twizzles and a level three for their one-foot steps. However, Fabbri took an uncharacteristic fall on a twizzled during the circular steps that cost them precious points. The final stationary lift was only graded a level three, and they found themselves in fifth place (106.88). With a total score of 189.08, they still finished in second place, but it was not where they wanted to be.
“I have really nothing to say,” said a disappointed Fabbri. “I think it was the worst performance of our career. We struggled since the first combo lift. We did mistakes in almost all the elements. Then I fell in the steps. That’s all I have to say at this point.”
The team now has 13 points going into their next event at Cup of China.
Emily Bratti and Ian Somerville
USA’s Emily Bratti and Ian Somerville put out a fun rhythm dance to “Brick House” and “Cool Daddy” was highlighted by level-four twizzles and rotational lift. The level-three midline steps were strong, and they earned 72.81 for fourth place.
“We feel really good!” said Bratti. “It was actually good to keep in the competition mindset after last week. We really like the vibe here and really feel much more positive compared to last week.”
“I usually am very focused on the part going into the partial step, but today the crowd was so engaging, so I really had fun with it,” added Somerville.
2024 U.S. national bronze medalists showed good connection in their free dance to “Ne Me Quitte Pas” and an original composition by Karl Hugo. The level three twizzles were close and synchronized, and they also showed good level three one-foot and circular steps. All three lifts were graded a level four, and they placed second in the free dance and third overall (113.07/185.88).
“Wow, I cannot believe it!” said Bratti. “The feelings couldn’t be more different than after the last event. We skated more with the mindset that we didn’t have anything to lose, today we skated to each other and for our coach Greg (Zuerlein). Tanith (Belbin) texted us before that we should skate for each other and that’s exactly what we did.”
“It feels amazing. I feel like ‘oh my God!'” said Somerville. “I want to remember what our mindset was going into this event because I want to apply it for all our events. We also had a lot of help from our coaches, so we really want to thank them. We tried not to think too much about scores and placements because that always puts some extra pressure.”
They will skate next in Estonia at the Tallinn Trophy.
Allison Reed and Saulius Ambrulevicius
Allison Reed and Saulius Ambrulevicius of Lithuania engaged the crowd with their rhythm dance to “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?” The 2024 European bronze medalists only received a level three on the twizzles, but the rotational lift garnered a level four. The pattern steps were a level two, while the midline steps were a level two and three. They scored 74.49 for third place.
Earlier this summer, the team had an accident when Reed’s blade cut her partner’s hand twice.
“We had to start the season a month later,” she explained. “We really wanted to go to Oberstdorf, but next week Oberstdorf is coming to us. We are really happy to see Jenny and Benji next week in Japan. So that late season start made things a bit tight, but we are happy to get things started and going and we felt good performing today.”
The team took a long time to find the right music for them.
“When I was in Switzerland, I found this track and added it to the playlist,” shared Ambrulevicius of the music. “We tried dancing to it on the floor back at home and liked it the best. We like that it’s a mix between Rock’n’Roll and disco.”
In the free dance, the two-time Grand Prix bronze medalists showed commitment in their story of a master and puppet and the battle that ensues. Their free dance was highlighted by their level four twizzles and lifts, and they finished fourth in the free dance and overall (110.75/185.24).
“Skating felt good today, we had fun performing out there,” said Reed. “The scores don’t reflect that. We just have to hope things will go more our way next week at NHK as we don’t have the time for any adjustments. We wanted to skate to this music forever; Apache is one of our favorite artists. We watched him live in concert three times already and we are thrilled to skate to it.”
Katerina Mrazkova and Daniel Mrazek
Katerina Mrazkova and Daniel Mrazek of the Czech Republic, who stood in seventh after the rhythm dance, placed third in the free dance (111.51) and fifth overall (183.05).
The 2023 World Junior Champions produced a compelling program to music from The Architect which was highlighted by level-four twizzles and stationary lift. The curve-rotational lift was graded a level three, and the team received a one-point deduction for a time violation. Still, the performance was seamless, and they placed third in this segment and fifth overall (111.51/183.05).
“We did a stupid mistake, we got a time violation,” noted Mrazek. “At Skate America we got a deduction because of an extended lift. First, we thought it was again because of the lift, the time deduction was stupid but it’s easily fixable. I didn’t want to tell that before, but we only had two training days since Skate America. I was sick last weekend and on Monday I still had a temperature. We weren’t sure what to do, but luckily, I learned that I could trust my body and it’s muscle memory.”
“We are overall happy,” added his sister and partner. “We know we have to work on the technical side now. We lost quite some points on levels in the rhythm dance and some on the lifts today, so we will be working on that.”
USA’s Leah Neset and Artem Markelov placed sixth overall (176.60), followed by Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain Le Gac of Canada (175.85).
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