Figure skater Ami Nakai wins Grand Prix de France for the second time — Taipei Times

Japanese figure skater Ami Nakai defended her title at the Grand Prix de France in Angers, scoring 219.74 points across the short program and free skate. In the free skate, the 18-year-old athlete scored 149.08 points — the same total as when she won the tournament last year, reports Taipei Times.

Victory after third place

After the short program, Nakai was in third place, but in the free skate she overtook Anastasiia Gubanova and Yuna Aoki. In her performance to music from “An American in Paris,” she landed a triple Axel.

Gubanova, who represents Georgia, won silver, finishing nearly 17 points behind the winner. It was her first podium finish in three appearances at the French Grand Prix event. Italy’s Lara Naki Gutmann finished third, earning a personal-best 137.01 points for her free skate.

Yuna Aoki led after the short program, but performed poorly in the free skate and finished outside the top three.

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Ice dance

Olympic champions Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron won the ice dance competition. The pair, who had already been first after the rhythm dance, finished the event with 207.57 points.

Georgia’s Diana Davis and Gleb Smolkin took second place with 193.93 points, while Americans Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko were third with 189.36. The winners’ coach, Romain Haguenauer, said their free dance was flawless.

Lead in the men’s competition

France’s Adam Siao Him Fa leads after the men’s short program. He is ahead of Estonia’s Aleksandr Selevko, who scored 85.49 points, and South Korea’s Seo Min-kyu, who scored 83.83 points. The French athlete said that above all, he enjoyed his performance.