Metelkina and Berulava grab historic gold at NHK Trophy
2024 NHK Trophy | Pairs
Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava of Georgia grabbed historic gold at 2024 NHK Trophy on Saturday in Tokyo, Japan. This was the first medal, of any color, that a Georgian Pairs team has won in a Grand Prix event. Japan’s Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara settled for silver after faltering in the free skate, while USA’s Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea maintained third for the bronze.
Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava
The 2024 World Junior Champions opened their short program with a huge level-four triple twist and followed up with a throw triple flip and good triple Salchows. They showed lots of confidence and speed, executing a level four lift and level three footwork and spins. The team, which placed fourth at Skate America, scored a new season’s best 70.28 points for second place.
“Compared to Skate America, we’ve improved our elements,” noted Berulava. “We like the death spiral, the spin, the speed of the overall performance of the program. We have been working on our mistakes.”
“Today we’re feeling good,” he added, while thanking everyone for their support. “We are really happy to compete with the world champions. It’s a very good competition and it’s a pleasure for us!”
After a sub-par free skate at Skate America, the team rebounded in their program to “A Necessary End” by Saltillo in Tokyo. They produced an excellent level-four triple twist, but Berulava turned out the landing on the side-by-side triple Salchow-double Axel-double Axel sequence. That was the only mistake they made. The triple toes, throw triple flip and throw triple loop were solid, earning positive grades of execution (GOE). All lifts and spins were graded a level four, and they picked up a new personal best of 142.77 points for first place. With a total score of 213.05, they finished first overall.
“We are just crazily happy right now!” said Berulava. “Our performance was very strong, very good and we are very pleased that it came out that way. We are happy that we were able to show today in the program what we did in the morning practice.”
“We are really grateful to the audience that has received us so well,” said Metelkina. “They were so supportive, and they gave us so much energy in both the short and the free program and we really felt at home.”
“I am just so proud that we were able to win that first gold medal in pair skating for Georgia,” added her partner. “I want to thank our federation and all of our coaches for all their effort they put into us.”
The team now has 24 points going into the Grand Prix Final.
Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara
The 2023 World champions opened their intense short program with a very good level three triple twist, but then Miura underrotated the triple toes. However, the throw triple Lutz was solid, and they earned a level four on the lift, spin, and steps, racking up high grades of execution along the way. They scored 71.90 points for their routine to “Paint It Black.”
“There was a mistake, but we were able to recover after that, so that one was very good for us,” said Miura.
All three teams were asked how it felt to be sitting next to each other with the 2023 World champions in the middle.
“Since I started pair skating, I’ve always skated with Danny,” said Kihara of O’Shea. “We’ve been working together and trying hard, and we’ve come so far. So, I actually learned a lot from him. Like the dance, a lift, and there’s many things that I’m learning from him.”
“The pair on my right (Metelkina and Berulava), their expression and speed are wonderful,” he continued. “So, I always think that I have to do better. I get stimulated and motivated by seeing them skate.”
The team was asked how they worked to express their character with their new style.
“The choreographer has changed, and we ourselves thought that we have to create this new drawer for us in this new season,” explained Kihara. “The choreographer proposed a new kind of music to us, and we’ve never tried that kind of music, so it was a challenging one. “
“At first, we thought, ‘would this be okay?’ But we trained hard, and we experienced competitions, and tried to create this kind of performance,” he continued. “And we were able to do that. And it wasn’t periodically done, but we were able to get training from dancers to learn about expression. We really focused on enhancing our expression capability, and that is very different from last year, we believe.”
The 2024 Skate America champions made costly errors in their free skate to “Adiós” by Benjamin Clementine. The triple twist was clean, although the judges were on the same page in terms of GOEs. Miura singled the second jump in the triple toe-double Axel-double Axel sequence and later double footed the landing n on the throw triple Lutz. The throw triple loop was solid, and all lifts and the death spiral were graded a level four.
However, it was the pair combination spin that got them into trouble.
“I think what happened was my skate got caught in a groove,” explained Kihara. “It was maybe when we were doing the camel, so we were about to change positions. And when I was in my second rotation on the camel when trying to change positions, my skate got caught in a groove and then I put my foot down. So that’s what brought it down to the base.”
They finished in second in the free skate and overall (137.55/209.45).
“Compared to our previous competition at Skate America, our free program actually earned one point higher, so we are happy about that,” said Miura.
“We’ve been working not only physically on the elements, but we have worked mentally a lot because we feel like in competition it’s only 30% is the physical preparation,” said Berulava when asked about consistency in the free skates. “It all depends on your head. Everything is on your mind, in your head, and this is where everything depends on, so that’s what we’ve worked on.”
With their win from Skate America, the team now has 28 points going into the Grand Prix Final.
Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea
The 2024 Four Continents bronze medalists placed third in the short program with 69.15 points. The side-by-side triple Salchows and throw triple loop were solid, but they lost a level on the spin. Their creative routine to “Rain, in Your Black Eyes” also featured a good level-four lift which earned many positive GOES.
O’Shea said it was amazing to be able to compete with friends and to be able to be in the top three after the short program in their third season.
“They’re wonderful people and amazing skaters and we get to train with them several times a year for a few weeks,” he said. “It‘s amazing to see how we are able to grow and being pushed by how great they are.”
The 2024 U.S. Champions had two falls in the free skate: Kam fell on both the throw triple flip and throw triple loop. Otherwise, their routine was clean and featured solid side-by-side triple Salchows and a triple Salchow-double Axel sequence. The triple twist, lifts and spin were graded a level four, and they finished third in the free skate and overall (128.29/197.44).
They were a bit disappointed the mistakes but were happy with the overall improvement of their programs.
“(We are) feeling very blessed to be up in this podium with some amazing competitors and to be at this rink with an amazing crowd again,” said Kam. “To see the stands all full with some American flags there was really amazing. We really appreciate all the support and getting to skate with a crowd like that today.”
They have 24 points total going into the Grand Prix Final.
Annika Hocke and Rober Kunkel
Germany’s Annika Hocke and Rober Kunkel landed triple Salchows and throw triple loop in their rock n’ roll short program to “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” and “Black Betty.” The steps, spin and lift were graded a level four, while the death spiral was a level three. They earned 67.37 points, improving by nearly three points from their outing at 2024 Skate Canada.
The 2023 European bronze medalists placed fourth (121.17) in the free skate with their routine to selections by Falco. The triple twist was good, but Kunkel put his foot down on the triple Salchows, while Hocke underrotated and stepped out the double Axel-Axel-double Axel sequence. She also put a hand and foot down on the throw triple flip, but the throw triple loop was solid. All lifts were graded a level four, and they placed fourth overall (188.54).
They have18 points total going into the Grand Prix Final.
Daria Danilova and Michel Tsiba of the Netherlands placed fifth overall (178.37), followed by Great Britain’s Anastasia Vaipan-Law and Luke Digby (174.45).
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