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Japanese figure skater Asada wins ladies title at Cup of China

Xinhua, November 7, 2015 Adjust font size:

Japan's three-time figure skating world champion Mao Asada won the ladies title at the Cup of China ISU Grand Prix despite a flawed free skating performance here on Saturday.

   The Vancouver Olympic runner-up only took third with 125.75 points in free skating, but still clinched the title by a total of 197.48 points thanks to a neat short program on Friday. 

   The 2015 Four Continents bronze medallist Rika Hongo took silver with 195.76, while Russia's 2015 World bronze medallist Elena Radionova came third in 184.28.

   Asada opened her performance to "Madame Butterfly" with a triple axel, but fell on the triple flip-triple loop combination and skipped the triple lutz.

   "For the free skating, I don't satisfied with the performance. I I didn't do all the elements as I planned. There were many problems."

   The Cup of China is Asada's first Grand Prix competition in two years after taking a leave following her gold at the 2014 world championships.  

   Hongo, who skated to the music "Riverdance by Bill Whelan", opened her free skating with a clean triple flip-triple toeloop. She did all the jumps neatly and spins and sequences smoothly to top the free skating with a season best 129.97 points.

   China's Li Zijun was out of form and only ranked ninth.

   In the Ice Dance, Italy's former world champion pair Anna Cappellini/Luca Lanotte won the title with 173.30. World silver medallists Madison Chock and Evan Bates of United States earned 169.16 to take second, while Russia's Elena Ilinykh and Ruslan Zhiganshin came third in 159.00.

   The ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Cup of China ran from November 6th to 8th. Skaters compete for points to qualify for the Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final and a prize money of 180,000 U.S. dollars per individual event of the Grand Prix.  Endi