China, US Split Gold Medals at World Junior Grand Prix Finals

Chinese and US skaters split the four gold medals on offer at the World Junior Figure Skating Grand Prix Finals in Scotland on Saturday, with the Chinese winning the pairs and men's singles and the United States taking the ice dancing and women's singles events.

The men gave it all they've got in today's freeskate. They didn 't seem to be holding back whatsoever and most of the men displayed an assertiveness that they were missing in the short program.

There were no clean performances, but these guys put it all out on the ice, and no one more so than China's Ma Xiaodong, the gold medal winner.

Ma blew his competitors right out of the water by opening with a huge triple axel-triple toe combination, followed by a quadruple toe loop. If the quad wasn't clean, he could have only had a slight touch down but we'll have to wait and see what the officials say. If that wasn't good enough for the youngster, he then landed a perfect triple lutz-triple toe combination, a triple flip, a double axel, and yet another triple axel.

First to skate in the final group was 14 year old Sergey Dobrin of Russia.

Opening with a triple salchow-triple toe combination, he went on to do a triple lutz-triple toe, and one other triple, the loop. He singled his first attempted flip and two footed the second try, resulting in technical marks ranging from 5.1 to 5.4 and for presentation he received 5.2's to 5.4's.

Dobrin really got the crowd going because he is so small and can pull off the difficult tricks. He ended up with the silver medal. Pleased with his performance, Dobrin said, "I'm happy. I did all the targets that my coach put out for me."

Next to skate was Stanislav Timchenko of Russia. His opening jump was a beautiful triple axel- double toe combination. Timchenko also landed a triple toe-triple toe, but singled his triple flip. He later made a gutsy attempt at trying the triple flip again, but fell, and also fell on the triple loop jump.

Although he wasn't perfect, it was good enough for the bronze medal. Disappointed, Timchenko said, "I did okay, but not as good as I expected."

Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao of China won the free program, but not in any spectacular fashion like everyone had been hoping.

The team opted for a triple twist rather than the quadruple they had been practicing perfectly all week, and they had trouble with their side by side triple attempts, both the toe loop and the salchow.

The pair struggled, as Zhang Dan wasn't clean on the landings of the throw triple salchow and throw triple loop, while Hao looked very tired toward the end of the program. Although they may not have performed up to their ability today, their quality was still superior to the rest of the field and they received marks ranging from 5.0 to 5.5.

The teams coach, Yao Bin said, "They were very nervous. This was their first time to win a medal. Last year they were fifth. Here they had a good chance to medal. They were thinking too much. "

Second after the short program, Kristen Roth and Michael McPherson of the United States held on to their position to take home the silver medal.

Finishing third, and moving up one spot from the short, was Yuka Kawaguchi and Alexander Markuntsov of Japan.

American Ann Patrice McDonough came out on top moving up from fourth place to win the women's singles title.

In a beautifully choreographed free program to Romeo and Juliet, McDonough won in a very close decision over Russian Kristina Oblasova. The 15 year old McDonough was able to clinch first place by winning the free program in which she executed four clean triple jumps, with two in combination.

Americans Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto are in first place after a brilliantly skated original dance to The Maddest Kind of Love, Girls, Girls, Girls. Their marks ranged from 5.3 to 5.6., and both skater's were very happy with the performance. Agosto later said, "It's the best we skated the OD the all season."






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