TURIN, Italy – Loena Hendrickx of Belgium was the surprise winner of the women’s short programme at the International Skating Union (ISU) Grand Prix of Italy in Turin with a personal best of 73.52 points.
Skating to “Caruso”, Hendrickx compiled a personal-best score of 73.52 points.
Russians Maiia Khromykh and Anna Shcherbakova, this year´s world champion, placed second and third, respectively.
“It felt strange, a bit more pressure than normally, I wanted to skate clean and enjoy my day. I am very surprised with the result,” said Hendrickx, who was celebrating her 22nd birthday according to AP. “I couldn´t have made myself a better present.”
Jin Boyang of China led the men´s short program ahead of Daniel Grassl of host Italy and Cha Jun-hwan of South Korea.
China also went 1-2 in the pairs short program, with two-time world champions Sui Wenjing and Han Cong leading Peng Cheng and Jin Yang. Nicole Della Monica and Matteo Guarise of Italy came in third.
Four-time world champions Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France won the ice dance ahead of Americans Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue and the Russian pair of Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin.
The event was originally scheduled for Chongqing, China, but was moved to Italy due to travel restrictions and other issues related to the pandemic. It is the third of six competitions on the Grand Prix schedule.
“We changed the second music of the program and the choreography a bit as well,” said Papadakis.
“We worked with our choreographer to choreograph something new.
“I think it was very clean and we had a lot of fun working on that, it was a big improvement.
“We had a very good time performing.”
Jin Boyang started off his sole assignment for the season in style with a 97.89 to earn the gold medal in the men’s short programme.
Italy’s Daniel Grassl and South Korean Cha Jun-hwan took silver and bronze, respectively.
China secured a one-two in the pairs short programme event.
Sui Wenjing and Han Cong produced a stunning routine to claim gold with 80.07 points, while compatriots Peng Cheng and Jin Yang settled for silver on 76.71 points.
Italy’s Nicole Della Monica and Matteo Guarise rounded out the top three with a score of 65.12.
