Amber Glenn triumphed over neck discomfort to outperform her world champion U.S. teammate Alysa Liu and secure victory in the figure skating Cup of China for the second consecutive year on Saturday in Chongqing. The U.S. national champion, Glenn, exhibited signs of neck strain post her free skate routine, where she bounced back from a shaky triple toeloop landing early on. Initially in third place after Friday’s short program, Glenn had to await Liu and Japan’s Rinka Watanabe’s free skate performances to determine her final standing.
Liu slipped to second place with a total score of 212.07 points, trailing Glenn’s 214.78 after struggling with a triple flip landing. Watanabe managed to hold onto the podium, finishing third with the fifth-best score in the free skate. Glenn expressed her elation, describing the win as “incredible” and expressing excitement for both herself and her teammate to claim the top two spots on the podium. Notably, despite being a two-time world championship medalist, this marked Liu’s first appearance on a Grand Prix event podium.
In the men’s event, Japan’s Shun Sato clinched the Cup of China title for the second consecutive year, executing three quadruple jumps flawlessly in his free skate to secure a total of 278.12 points. He maintained the lead over Italy’s Daniel Grassl, who scored 269.43, and Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov, who finished with 262.67 after a stumble on his final jump.
World champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates secured their first Cup of China victory after six attempts in ice dance, scoring a total of 208.25 to surpass their U.S. counterparts Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik at 202.27. The third spot went to Evgeniia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud of France with a total of 196.60.
In the pairs category, Georgia’s Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava claimed the gold with a score of 217.24, followed by Italy’s Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii in second place and China’s Sui Wenjing and Han Cong, the 2022 Olympic champions who recently returned from retirement, in third.
The Cup of China serves as the second event of the six regular season Grand Prix competitions leading up to the final in December, serving as a crucial test for skaters aiming for success at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics in February. The ISU Grand Prix series will continue with Skate Canada International in Saskatoon starting on October 31.
