Russia’s Shcherbakova survives slip to take Grand Prix gold

Russian world champion Anna Shcherbakova survived a slip on a quadruple spin to land a series of other combinations and win the women’s figure skating at the Grenoble Grand Prix on Saturday.

The 17-year-old, who is favourite to take the gold at the Winter Games in February, took top spot in Friday’s short programme but slipped and fell off the takeoff of her opening Lutz of Saturday’s free skate.

Shcherbakova recovered with a quadruple flip to post a total 229.69 points.

“The mistake threw me off and I was very upset, but I did all my elements afterwards, which was very important,” she told the ISU.

Fellow Russian Alena Kostornaia was second, 7.84 points behind, while Japan’s Wakaba Higuchi climbed from sixth to take the bronze.

Earlier, in the ice dancing Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron also fluffed a move but held their overnight lead to clinch gold.

The French winners suffered a rare moment of horror during a complicated movement but somehow managed to right themselves coming out of the move.

Later Saturday, the men’s and pairs free figure skating programmes will also be decided.

Winner in the Turin event earlier in November, Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama was dominant in the men’s short programme Friday.

The pairs figure skating was much closer after the technical programme with headline entries Aleksandra Boikova and Dmitrii Kozlovskii just ahead of another Russian pair, Iuliia Artemeva and Mikhail Nazarychev.

The Grenoble competition follows events in Las Vegas, Vancouver, Turin and Tokyo.