BACKSTAGE PASS to CUP OF CHINA!

Cup of China, week November 6-12

It was another long trip from Victoria to Nanjing. There were delays due to bad weather from Victoria and we almost missed our connection in Vancouver. There were seven of us on that flight, including Canadian pair skaters Valerie Marcoux/Craig Buntin. Yannick Ponsero (France) had left on Sunday already. Emanuel Sandhu was booked on our flight but he missed it! He then flew to Shanghai and had to catch a bus and a train to Nanjing. It took five hours, but he made it. In Beijing we met the Chinese team at the airport again. They had left Vancouver half an hour later on the Air China flight. There was another delay in Beijing and so it was late at night when we finally arrived in Nanjing.

The Cup of China took place in Nanjing for the first time. Nanjing is a city in the south (in fact, the name means “southern capital”) and they built a huge sports facility here. Next to the skating rink is a big soccer arena that they plan to use for the Olympic Games. Everything was new and shiny.

The event started with an accident, unfortunately. During the unofficial practice, Armenian ice dancer Anastasia Grebenkina cut her leg with her blade and needed stitches. But she, too, is tough and never gave up. She competed.

There was an unusual incident during the Men’s Free Skating. While the third competitor, Jialiang Wu of China, was skating, the British judge Richard Grainge collapsed on the stand! He was unconscious for a moment and they took him to hospital. The competition continued with nine judges. Luckily, Mr. Grainge was released from hospital later that night. At first I thought he was affected by the stomach flu that had hit some people including competitors (Yannick Ponsero, Alexandra and Roman Zaretski), but apparently it was something else.

There were some competitive highlights for me. In the dance, Oksana Domnina/Maxim Shabalin were brilliant and beat Tanith Belbin/Benjamin Agosto for the first time. Xue Shen/Hongbo Zhao skated very well and proved that they’re back. The level of the pairs competition was definitely higher than in the first two events. In the Men’s I was happy for Sergei Davydov who put out two solid performances to win his first Grand Prix medal (silver). And Alexander Uspenski of Russia rallied back after a faulty short to earn a new personal best in the Free Skating (6th place overall).
 

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