Links - CBCSportsca Blogs Grand Prix Final filled with m - North River Minor Hockey Association

CBCSportsca Blogs Grand Prix Final filled with mixed results News Sports Radio TV My Region Watch Listen Member Centre Login Sign UpCharlottetown Change City7c CloudyHockey Headlines Scoreboard Standings Stats NHL Schedule Teams Players Hockey Night in Canada Highlights Fantasy Pool Commonwealth Football Headlines CFL Scoreboard CFL Standings CFL Stats CFL Teams NFL Scoreboard NFL Standings NFL Stats NFL Teams NFL Players Video Alpine Skiing Curling Figure Skating Basketball NBA Scoreboard Standings Stats Teams Players Basketball News Feed Baseball MLB Scoreboard Standings Stats Teams Players Baseball News Feed Soccer MLS Scoreboard MLS Standings International Stats Soccer News Feed Amateur Sports Golf Tennis Blogs and Columns Figure SkatingSubscribe to Blogs and Columns Grand Prix Final filled with mixed results December 17 2009 0419 PM Posted by Pj Kwong Comments0Recommend25 The ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final wrapped up last weekend in Tokyo completing a sixevent series of competitions known as the Grand PrixThe object of the exercise was for the skaters to rack up points based on their final placing in each of their maximum two events and for the top six in each discipline to move on to the FinalThis particular Grand Prix Final was a lot more interesting than most with favourites falling short of expectations at almost every turn The exception was in the pairs event where comeback kids from China the twotime Olympic bronze medalists and three time world champions Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao easily took the titleShen and Zhao last competed in the 200607 year and decided to come back for this Olympic season with the gold medal as their goal This is their sixth Grand Prix Final gold and it was achieved on the back of a highest posted overall total score for not only this season but alltime and personal bests in both the short and free programs Teammates and the 2006 world champions Qing Pang and Jian Tong took the silver ahead of defending twotime world champions from Germany Aliona Savchenko and Robin SzolkowyIt has to be said that if the German team wants to be taken seriously as an Olympic goldmedal threat they will have to skate two clean programs at the recordsetting level they achieved at Skate Canada or be left behind as they were in Toyko They were second after the short fourth in the free and settled for bronze overallDefending world champion from Korea YuNa Kim took the womens title in Tokyo but not without a fight from the Japanese women Miki Ando Japans 2007 world champion and 2009 world bronze medallist won the short program but was edged out in the free and had to settle for the silver Japans Akiko Suzuki had performed basically under the radar until her breakout performance at the Cup of China in Beijing earlier this season which she won In Tokyo she was strong enough in the free program to take the bronze ahead of world silv...