lunablue的夢想空間

Ice Dance Final

Virtue and Moir danced to victory in front of an enthusiastic audience in the Colisee Pepsi. Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte of Italy earned the silver medal and Pernelle Carron and Mathieu Jost from France took the bronze. For both the Italian and the French couple it was their first medal on the Grand Prix series (senior level).

Virtue and Moir delivered a romantic free dance set to “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” and scored a new personal best of 99.62 (53.30 element score/46.32 program component score). Their program featured difficult but smooth footwork, a curve-rotational lift with changes of position, a straight line lift with him sliding on one knee and a serpentine lift. The 2006 World junior champions were awarded a level four for all eight elements.

Virtue and Moir's previous personal best score from the 2007 World Championships was 95.38 points. Overall, the Canadians racked up 197.07 points to win their first Grand Prix gold medal.

“We felt the performance went really well for us. We felt comfortable out there on the ice. We tried to take it one element at a time. That was our game plan. We’re looking to build for Japan, our next competition,” Moir said. “Our program is obviously based right on the movie 'Les Parapluies de Cherbourg' and we are the characters in the movie. We’re trying to tell the story. It’s very young love and he has to leave for the military.”

Cappellini and Lanotte performed to “La Traviata” by Guiseppe Verdi. The Italians completed difficult steps, earning a level four for their circular step sequence and a level three for their side-by-side footwork as well as a level four for their twizzles.

However, they struggled with their serpentine lift when he couldn’t hold her long enough, and the element was graded only a level two.

Cappellini and Lanotte picked up 85.44 points (44.70/40.74), setting a new personal best. They were ranked third in the free dance but remained in second overall at 171.57 points. “Coming here, we didn’t expect to medal, but after the Polka (compulsory dance) we thought it’s possible,” Cappellini said. “We’re obviously not pleased with our performance today. We had a problem with the second position of our serpentine lift in practice this morning. We were afraid that I might be in an illegal position, so we changed it, but it became worse."

Skating to “Nocturne” by Frederic Chopin, Carron and Jost showed interesting lifts including a straight line-rotational lift with changes of position for both partners, a curve lift and a rotational lift and received a level four for their circular step sequence and a level three for the midline step sequence and their spin.

The French earned 87.13 points (47.90/39.23), significantly improving their previous personal best of 79.30 points. They were ranked second in the free dance and third overall with a total score of 167.83 points. “This medal is a great satisfaction for us. We came here to win the silver or bronze medal, although nobody except for us believed that this would be possible,” Jost said.