Skater Joubert dazzles at Japan Grand Prix
Former world champion Brian Joubert, fighting back from a disappointing start to the season, nailed a quadruple jump to take the lead after the short programme at the Japanese Grand Prix Friday.
The 25-year-old Frenchman collected 85.35 points, followed by Americans Jeremy Abbott at 83.00 and Johnny Weir at 78.35 at the NHK Trophy, the fourth event of the six-stage ISU Grand Prix series.
In the women's short programme, America's 18-year-old Ashley Wagner took a slim 0.32-point lead over Japan's 2007 world champion Miki Ando, who beat her into second spot at the Rostelecom Cup in Moscow two weeks ago.
Another Japanese, Yukari Nakano, was third at 54.92.
Joubert, fourth at the season-opening Trophee Eric Bompard at home last month, wowed the crowd at the Big Hat arena with an opening quadruple toeloop-triple toeloop combination, followed by a dazzling triple axel.
He stumbled out of his next element, a triple lutz, but went on with no further error to the music of "Rise" by Safri Duo. He was the only one in the 12-man field who had a quadruple in the short programme.
"I'm very happy about my performance today because I was very disappointed after my first Grand Prix," said the 2007 world champion, who clinched his third European crown and finished third at the world championships last season.
"It was very important for me to do this kind of programme and it made me very confident for the rest of the competition."
Abbott, 24, who won the Grand Prix Final title last season, skated without a mistake to The Beatles' "A Day in the Life," starting with a triple flip-triple toeloop combination and a triple axel, in his first Grand Prix of the season.
"I was most pleased that I got everything done," said the 25-year-old after scoring his personal best short programme in international competition. "I thought at this point in the season it wasn't bad."
Wagner, the world junior bronze medalist last season, took off with the wrong edge on her triple lutz and downgraded a double axel. But she earned 56.54 points after skating to the theme of "Once Upon a Time in America."
Ando, 21, third at the world championships in March, fell on her bottom after a triple flip but expressively skated to Mozart's "Requiem".
"That was a little bit silly of me," Wagner said of her failed axel.
She said she would look for a clean double axel in free skating on Saturday. "I really want to put out a performance that's enjoyable to watch, that's technically solid."
In the pairs short programme, Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov of Russia upstaged China's 2006 world champions Pang Qing and Tong Jiang who touched the ice after an opening triple toeloop.
The Russian pair, who finished second behind Pang and Tong in the Rostelecom Cup ago, collected 68.90 points for an error-free performance to the music of "The Swan" by Camille Saint-Saens.
The Chinese duo trailed Kavaguti and Smirnov by 1.60 points.
In ice dance, Four Continent champions Meryl Davis and Charlie White of the United States took a 3.05-point lead over British siblings Sinead and John Kerr after the compulsory dance, which was "Tango Romantica."
In the Grand Prix series, each skater is allowed to compete in just two Grand Prix events. The best six in points standings in men's and women's singles as well as pairs and ice dance qualify for the Grand Prix Final in Tokyo in early December.
The men's field here was highly competitive despite the absence of big names such as world champion Evan Lysacek of the United States and Russia's Olympic gold medallist Evgeny Plushenko.
South Korea's world champion Kim Yu-Na and her off-form archrival Mao Asada of Japan were absent from the women's contest.
